| 3.1 | Technical characteristics of the equipment used for digital PPDR systems shall conform to all applicable South African standards, international standards, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and its radio regulations as agreed and adopted by South Africa. |
| 3.1.1 | There are however a few minor differences between the national, ITU and European allocations, as mentioned below. The frequency arrangements for narrowband PPDR provided in section 2-1.3 of ITU Rec. M.2015 8 show the band starting at 380.0125 MHz (and also offset by 12.5 kHz for the inner intra-band boundaries), and not at exactly 380 MHz. The M.2015 also shows the band ending at 399.9875 MHz (and not 399.9 MHz). |
| 3.1.2 | In section 2-1.4 of the same M.2015, the harmonized frequency arrangements within the frequency range 380 - 470 MHz in accordance with the ATU harmonization measures for narrowband and/or wideband PPDR are shown to start at 380 MHz, offer 5 MHz and 4.99 MHz wide subdivision and end at 399.99 MHz rather than 399.9 MHz. |
| 3.1.3 | In contrast, the ECC T/R 25-08 9 provides a band plan with channels starting exactly at 380 MHz, matching the outer borders of the allocation. The end of the band is also stated as 399.99 MHz (not 399.9 MHz). |
| 3.1.4 | Comparing the data presented in 3.1.1-3.1.3 against the South African allocation shown in Appendix A and the “Channelling Plan” provided in chapter 4 of this RFSAP advises of a slight mismatch. In South Africa, the national allocation takes priority. |
| 3.2 | All installations must comply with safety rules as specified in applicable standards. |
| 3.3 | The equipment used shall be certified under South African law and regulations. |
| 3.4 | The allocation of this frequency band and the information in this Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan (RFSAP) are subject to review. |
| 3.4.1 | Frequency bands assigned for digital PPDR include bands 380.0 - 389.9 MHz paired with 390.0 - 399.9 MHz. |
| 3.4.2 | Likely use of this band will be for public safety by the South African Police Service (SAPS), Department of Defence and the Army. |
| 3.5 | TETRA, its data-driven enhancement standard TEDS 10 and the evolving LTE380 are applicable for the provision of the system and service. The typical technical and operational characteristics identified as appropriate by the ITU are described in the documents listed in section 3.6 below. |
| 3.5.1 | TETRA is applicable for the provision of PPDR services in this band. TETRA is a digital radio standard for critical communications. The development of the standards for the TETRA system has been carried out by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Some services that TETRA offers: |
| ● | Wide area fast call set-up "all informed net" group calls; |
| ● | Direct Mode Operation (DMO)11 allowing "back-to-back" communications between radio terminals independent of the network; |
| ● | High level voice encryption to meet the security needs of public safety organisations; |
| ● | An Emergency Call facility that gets through even if the system is busy; and |
| ● | Full duplex voice for PABX and PSTN telephony communications. |
| 3.5.2 | TEDS is a new TETRA High Speed Data (HSD) service using different RF channel bandwidths and data rates for flexible use of Digital PMR frequency bands. TEDS is fully compatible with TETRA Release 1 and allows for ease of migration. It has been optimised for efficient use of PMR frequency bands and designed for all TETRA market segment applications. The RF channel bandwidths supported in TEDS are 25 kHz, 50 kHz, 100 kHz, and 150 kHz. Some added services that TEDS offers12: |
| ● | “With adaptive selection of modulation schemes, RF channel bandwidths and coding according to propagation conditions, user bit rates in the region of 10 to 500 kbits/s can be expected. |
| ● | For ease of evolution and migration from TETRA Release 1 reuse of the TETRA protocol stack and TDMA structure have been maximised. |
| ● | TEDS also allows up to 8 multimedia applications and QoS negotiation for real-time class data applications, such as voice and video and telemetry, with the QoS attributes negotiated being; throughput, delay, priority, and reliability. |
| ● | Support for sectored cells is also provided enabling the use of existing TETRA Release 1 Base Sites for TEDS without the need for additional sites. |
| ● | Even though TEDS is capable of providing High Speed Data in 150 kHz RF channels, the current limitation caused by insufficient RF spectrum to support the growth of TETRA will probably limit early deployments to 50 kHz RF channel assignments only.” |
It may be noted that, as per ECC Report 99 13, “Usage of TEDS in 380 - 385/390 - 395 MHz band is possible within Europe, with a guard band at the edges to protect adjacent AGA services. This guard band depends on the TEDS bandwidth and goes up to 300 kHz for TEDS-150 kHz”. Additional spectrum requirements for Europe may be explored from ETSI TR 102 628 14. More in-depth information is also available from ETSI standards, e.g., EN 302 561 15, TR 102 580 16.
| 3.5.3 | LTE380: There are some LTE 380 trials and consultations ongoing in other parts of the world in the 380 – 400 MHz band, including in Colombia and Uganda17. The process is, however, still early with respect to standards. They are likely to happen within the next several years. |
| 3.6 | Further details of relevant bands and applicable technologies are specified in the following ITU and CEPT/ECC documents: |
| ● | Report ITU-R M.2377-1 (11/2017): Radiocommunication objectives and requirements for Public Protection and Disaster Relief 18 |
| ● | Report ITU-R M.2014-3 (11/2016): Digital land mobile systems for dispatch traffic 19; |
| ● | Report ITU-R M.2415-0 (11/2017): Spectrum needs for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) 20; |
| ● | Recommendation ITU-R M.2015-2 (01/2018): Frequency arrangements for public protection and disaster relief radiocommunication systems in accordance with Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC-15) 21; |
| ● | Report ITU-R M.2291-2 (12/2021): The use of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) for broadband Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) applications 22. |
| ● | Recommendation ITU-R M.2009-2 (01/2019): Radio interface standards for use by public protection and disaster relief operations in accordance with Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC-15) 23; |
| ● | Recommendation ITU-R M.1808-1 (11/2019): Technical and operational characteristics of conventional and trunked land mobile systems operating in the mobile service allocations below 869 MHz to be used in sharing studies in bands below 960 MHz 24. |
| ● | ECC Decision (08)05 “The harmonisation of frequency bands for the implementation of digital Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) narrow band and wide band radio applications in bands within the 380-470 MHz range”, Approved 27 June 2008, Amended 8 March 2019 25 ; |
| ● | ECC Recommendation T/R 25-08 “Planning criteria and cross-border coordination of frequencies for land mobile systems in the range 29.7 - 470 MHz”, Approved 15 January 1990, Amended 28 September 2018 9. |
| ● | ECC Report 276 “Thresholds for the coordination of CDMA and LTE broadband systems in the 400 MHz band”, 27 April 201826. |
| ● | ECC Report 99: “TETRA Enhanced Data Services (TEDS): Impact on existing PMR/PAMR and Air Ground Air (AGA) systems in the 400 MHz band” 13. |
Additional useful references on the subject may be found in Annex 1 of ITU-R Report M.2377- 1 18, and Annex 2 of ECC/DEC/ (08)/05 27. In particular, Annex 2 of ECC/DEC/ (08)05 provides a list of digital land mobile systems and related sharing and compatibility reports, and so does the Annex of ECC/DEC (04)0628. ECC Decision (16)02 29 offers an extensive set of references for considering implementation of Broadband PPDR (BB-PPDR).
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| 8 | Recommendation ITU-R M.2015-2 (01/2018): Frequency arrangements for public protection and disaster relief radiocommunication systems in accordance with Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC-15) https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/m/R-REC-M.2015-2-201801-I!!PDF-E.pdf |
| 9 | ECC Recommendation T/R 25-08 Planning criteria and cross-border coordination of frequencies for land mobile systems in the range 29.7-470 MHz. Approved 15 January 1990. Amended 28 September 2018. Available online at https://docdb.cept.org/download/2544 |
| 10 | ETSI TR 102 491 V1.2.1 (2006-05): Technical Report: Electromagnetic compatibility and Radio spectrum Matters (ERM); TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS); System reference document. Available online at https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/102400_102499/102491/01.02.01_60/tr_102491v010201p.pdf |
| 11 | Direct Mode Operation (DMO) - TCCA |
| 12 | TETRA Release 2 - TCCA - https://tcca.info/tetra/for-tetra-specialist/tetra-release-2/ |
| 13 | ECC Report 99 “TETRA Enhanced Data Services (TEDS): Compatibility Studies with Existing PMR/PAMR and Air Ground Air (Aga) Systems in the 400 MHz Band”, Bern, February 2007, Budapest, September 2007. Available online at https://docdb.cept.org/download/432 |
| 14 | ETSI TR 102 628 v1.2.1 (2014-09) Electromagnetic compatibility and Radio spectrum Matters (ERM); System Reference document (SRdoc); Land Mobile Service; Additional spectrum requirements for future Public Safety and Security (PSS) wireless communication systems in the UHF frequency range. |
| 15 | ETSI EN 302 561 V2.1.1 (2016-03) Land Mobile Service; Radio equipment using constant or non-constant envelope modulation operating in a channel bandwidth of 25 kHz, 50 kHz, 100 kHz or 150 kHz; Harmonised Standard covering the essential requirements of article 3.2 of the Directive 2014/53/EU. |
| 16 | ETSI TR 102 580 V1.1.1 (2007-10) Technical Report Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA); Release 2; Designer's Guide; TETRA High-Speed Data (HSD); TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS). Available online at https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/102500_102599/102580/01.01.01_60/tr_102580v010101p.pdf . |
| 17 | https://450alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/450Alliance-annual-device-update-P-rev-Final.pdf |
| 18 | ITU-R Report M.2377-1 (11/2017): Radiocommunication objectives and requirements for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR). Available online at https://www.itu.int/pub/R-REP-M.2377 . |
| 19 | ITU-R Report M.2014-3 (11/2016): Digital land mobile systems for dispatch traffic. Available online at https://www.itu.int/pub/R-REP-M.2014 . |
| 20 | ITU-R M.2415-0 (11/2017): Spectrum needs for Public Protection and Disaster Relief. Available online at https://www.itu.int/pub/R-REP-M.2415/en . |
| 21 | ITU-R Recommendation M.2015-2 (01/2018): Frequency arrangements for public protection and disaster relief radiocommunication systems in accordance with Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC-15). Available online at https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.2015/en . |
| 22 | Report ITU-R M.2291-2 (12/2021): The use of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) for broadband Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) applications. Available online at https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-r/opb/rep/R-REP-M.2291-2-2021-PDF-E.pdf |
| 23 | Recommendation ITU-R M.2009-2 (01/2019): Radio interface standards for use by public protection and disaster relief operations in accordance with Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC-15). https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/m/R-REC-M.2009-2-201901-I!!PDF-E.pdf |
| 24 | Recommendation ITU-R M.1808-1 (11/2019): Technical and operational characteristics of conventional and trunked land mobile systems operating in the mobile service allocations below 869 MHz to be used in sharing studies in bands below 960 MHz. Available online at https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1808 |
| 25 | ECC Decision (08)05: “The harmonisation of frequency bands for the implementation of digital Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) radio applications in bands within the 380-470 MHz range”, Approved 27 June 2008, Amended 8 March 2019, https://docdb.cept.org/document/416 |
| 26 | ECC Report 276 Thresholds for the coordination of CDMA and LTE broadband systems in the 400 MHz band, 27 April 2018. Available online at https://docdb.cept.org/download/1324 |
| 27 | The harmonisation of frequency bands for the implementation of digital Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) narrow band and wide band radio applications in bands within the 380 – 470 MHz range https://docdb.cept.org/download/1574 |
| 28 | The availability of frequency bands for the introduction of Wide Band Digital Land Mobile PMR/PAMR in the 400 MHz and 800/900 MHz bands https://docdb.cept.org/download/1690 |
| 29 | ECC Decision (16)02 Harmonised technical conditions and frequency bands for the implementation of Broadband Public Protection and Disaster Relief (BB-PPDR) systems. Approved 17 June 2016. Amended 8 March 2019. Available online at https://docdb.cept.org/download/1486 |
