Statement: PMSE clearing the 700 MHz band

Statement published 13 December 2018

In October 2016 we published our spectrum management decision to work towards accelerating the 700 MHz clearance programme by 18 months. This means the spectrum will become available for mobile services in May 2020, rather than September 2021. As a result, we have served notice on PMSE users that they will no longer have access to spectrum in the 700 MHz band from 1 May 2020.

Government has decided to fund a grant scheme to support PMSE equipment owners that have to vacate the 700 MHz band earlier than expected. We agreed with Government to design and run a grant scheme to disburse funds. In August 2018 we published a statement setting out our decisions on the level of funding that PMSE equipment owners would receive and the eligibility criteria for the scheme.

At the same time, we said that it would be appropriate for stakeholders to receive funding to help meet costs they will incur as a result of participating in the scheme. We asked for stakeholder input on our proposal to apply a 5% mark up to the payment a claimant receives from the funding scheme to help stakeholders meet these costs. This statement sets out our decision on the additional funding available to eligible equipment owners.