3.2.3 Land mobile radio

There are two allocations for land mobile radio (LMR) in the 806-960 MHz band currently:

• A 7-MHz pair, at 812-819 MHz and 857 864 MHz (the “TS band”), which is used for trunked dispatch services, and

• 1 MHz at 868-869 MHz (the “TX band”), which is used for simplex applications.

During 2007/08, the Ministry worked with industry on the introduction of digital technologies into the TS band, to enable a more spectrally efficient use of the land mobile service and the provision of enhanced features (e.g. quality voice, a type of short messaging service, data services, GPS tracking services and encryption), for which there had been growing demand. New digital services now share the TS band with existing analogue services. In this band, the two technologies have been mixed, rather than segmented into different sub-bands, as this has proven to be successful internationally. Similarly, there have been no reports of interference between these services in New Zealand since this framework came into force.

The TX band uses only analogue equipment. The TX band is located in a portion of spectrum which is used in Europe for short-range devices (SRDs), and therefore precludes the full use of the European SRD band in New Zealand.

There appear to be sufficient allocations in the 800 MHz band for LMR applications; the allocations are not fully utilised at present. These bands are managed under the administrative radio licensing regime.

Figure 2 shows the extent to which trunked dispatch LMR spectrum allocations are harmonised between the US, Australia, Europe and New Zealand, with the red ovals showing areas where spectrum could be more closely harmonised. New Zealand’s allocation has been harmonised with the US allocations insofar as the US duplex spacing of 45 MHz and channel edges have been aligned. Australia has partially harmonised its allocations with the US, although it has used a different duplex spacing. There is no alignment with European LMR allocations.

There is unlikely to be any economy of scale that can be gained by aligning New Zealand land mobile radio allocations with Australia that is not already being achieved or exceeded by the current alignment with the US, because the US is the dominant market for supply of this equipment. In respect of European LMR allocations, the equipment manufactured for use in these allocations follows the TETRA standard, which is capable of being used in both the European and US allocations. Therefore, although harmonisation has not been achieved at the allocation layer, it has been achieved at the technical standards layer, and there seems to be no additional benefit in seeking New Zealand spectrum alignment with European LMR allocations.

Question 4

If your organisation uses any of the land mobile radio sub-bands (812-819 MHz and 857 864 MHz, and 868-869 MHz), do you consider the Ministry’s assessment of current usage to be accurate? If not, please explain.