2.3 Current licensing policy

The current operational policy for licensing LMR services in New Zealand is set out in the following documents:

• Policy Document 003: Licensing of Land Mobile Services⁵
• Spectrum Band Plans: 800 MHz Trunked Despatch Land Mobile System⁶
• PIB 38: Engineering Rules⁷
• PIB 23: VHF and UHF Land Mobile Services in New Zealand⁸

In summary, current policy only permits licensing of LMR systems using analogue modulation (angle, amplitude and frequency), with the exception of the 800 MHz TS trunked dispatch band in which digital modulation is also permitted.

In 1992, a policy was introduced to encourage LMR users to engineer their systems on the basis of 12.5 kHz channel spacing (excluding trunked dispatch systems operating with 25 kHz spacing). This policy addressed the increasing congestion issues arising from the continued use of legacy analogue 25 kHz channel plans. The licensing of 25 kHz analogue channels was only permitted under special circumstances.

It was expected that 25 kHz channel analogue land mobile systems would eventually become obsolete as a result of the growing international trend towards the use of more efficient 12.5 kHz channel systems. In most countries, 25 kHz channel spacing for analogue land mobile systems has not been phased out completely; but its use continues to decrease as countries transition to the more efficient 12.5 kHz analogue channels and digital LMR technologies.

In the case of digital LMR technologies, 25 kHz channels can be a spectrally efficient option because of the increased number of users per channel. Therefore in the 800 MHz TS band, digital technologies based on both 12.5 kHz and 25 kHz channel spacings have been introduced.

Question 1

Do you agree that the current policy and licensing framework should be expanded to permit digital LMR in the VHF and UHF bands (see section 10.1, Appendix A, for a table giving the frequency ranges for these bands), in addition to the 800 MHz TS band?

Footnotes

⁵POLDOC 003 can be found here.

⁶The band plan for trunked despatch LMR at 800 MHz can be found here.

⁷PIB 38 can be found here.

⁸PIB 23 can be found here.