RSGB meets Ofcom to discuss VDSL issues

| October 11, 2019

As a result of RSGB Members’ concerns, a letter requesting a meeting was sent to Ofcom by Prof. Philip Willis, M0PHI (Director responsible for Spectrum), Ian Shepherd, G4EVK (RSGB Board Chair) and Dave Wilson, M0OBW (RSGB President).

Subsequently, Dave Wilson, Philip Willis, Dr Martin Sach, G8KDF (RSGB EMC Committee Chair), Dr John Rogers, M0JAV (previous RSGB EMC Committee Chair) and Steve Thomas, M1ACB (RSGB General Manager) met with Ofcom this week to discuss the VDSL issues.

The following is a summary of some of the key points from that meeting—

  1. Ofcom has finished its testing and has produced a report which the RSGB saw in draft format. This revised report recognises that VDSL emits a level of electromagnetic disturbance (EMD) capable of affecting HF radio reception. With that in mind, the RSGB asked Ofcom to publish its new report and remove the previous report from its website
  2. Ofcom is happy to support the RSGB’s plans to reopen discussions with Openreach. One area the RSGB intends to discuss with Openreach is the implementation of notching for the amateur bands which is already included in Openreach equipment
  3. The RSGB EMC Committee has published its final report (44-page/3.9MB PDF) on joint testing with Ofcom and is happy to confirm that the results are similar to those in the new Ofcom report
  4. The RSGB emphasised the need to implement notching in G.fast—ultrafast broadband—from the beginning and will take this up with Ofcom during further meetings
  5. To help amateurs understand Ofcom’s position, Ofcom offered to write an open letter to the RSGB explaining: its ethos; the rationale behind how it operates; what the law is; what Ofcom can do and what it will do; and also how Ofcom’s decision-making process works. This letter has now been published on the RSGB website (6-page/181KB PDF)

 

Category: EMC Committee papers, Front Page News, GB2RS Headlines