24 May 2016

IoT: Business radio’s worst enemy?

April’s Ofcom Business Radio Interest Group meeting discussed many things, including e-licensing, the threat from IoT devices, Ofcom’s licensee survey and LTE in the 450 to 470 MHz band. Sam Fenwick brings you the highlights

Ofcom’s Russell Kent-Smith, director of sector policy, gave an update on the regulator’s new e-licensing system. He explains that it is “part of a wider set of platform changes within Ofcom to give us the modern business systems we need”. Kent-Smith says that the amateur radio licensing system should go live by the end of June, followed by business radio light licensing at some point in July.

“We’d really like to involve the user community and have feedback on the system, so we can make sure that it is as smooth as possible and that the way we provide services reflects your needs. As we get closer to going live the plan is to put more and more information out about the transition.”

He adds that as there are “significant complexities” with integrating technically- assigned licences they won’t be part of the current release, but Ofcom is looking at how to do this.