back to article Ofcom sets out recompense for luvvies

Ofcom has published a rate card for professionals wanting to know how much they'll get in exchange for shifting frequencies, averaging out at just over half the cost of replacement kit. The compensation is for the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) crowd who've been asked to shift frequencies to create a bigger block …

COMMENTS

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  1. John Savard

    Obvious Solution

    To avoid causing people to lose money and avoid expense to the taxpayer, the new frequencies should have been opened up, and the import and manufacture of equipment for the old frequencies halted, right away - and the old frequencies only taken away when the old equipment would largely have ceased to operate due to normal wear and tear, or, at least, when its value would have depreciated away.

    1. Terry Barnes

      Obvious?

      I'm not sure that would work. These aren't one-off pieces of kit but complete systems. If you ban the import and sale of it then the failure of a single mic could mean replacing the whole system - unless you introduce the unintended consequence of a thriving black market.

      Fully depreciated isn't the same as 'zero cost to replace' either - the frequencies are being taken for commercial gain, it's only right that the existing users are recompensed.

      Now, where's my 934 Mhz CB radio?

    2. Ole Juul

      Solution?

      I think you forget that some users repair their electronics and keep them going for a very long time. Also, like Terry Barnes mentions, there could be a pretty good black market there.

  2. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
    Flame

    I recall....

    ...the mess that the Home Office Radio Regulatory Board got into over CB.

    When CB radios first hit the UK they broadcast on the 27Mhz band, which was already used for radio control of model aircraft. They caused huge amounts of damage to this hobby, and endangered public safety. The aeromodellers asked for help - they paid an annual license fee to use their frequency, but the Home Office did nothing. At the time, they did seem to understand what a frequency clash was, and I recall speaking to an official who actually suggested that CBers and aeromodellers in a local area got together to work out times when each group could use their equipment....

    Story of government and a completely non-technical civil service really.

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