§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Postmaster-General if the British Broadcasting Corporation is the sole user in the United Kingdom of that part of the very high frequency broadcast band lying between 88.0 and 95.0 megacycles; and what are the technical characteristics, including location, radiated frequency, deviation, radiated power, polarisation, and mean aerial height, of each non-British Broadcasting Corporation station.
§ Mr. BennThe British Broadcasting Corporation is the sole user in the United Kingdom but two frequencies in this band are used in the Isle of Man by the Isle of Man Broadcasting Company Limited.
§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Postmaster-General which of the Stockholm assignments to the United Kingdom are at present vacant; and whether any existing radio station, either British Broadcasting Corporation or non-British Broadcasting Corporation, renders these unusable.
§ Mr. BennI assume the hon. Member is referring to assignments in the 87.5–100 Mc/s band. 358 of the Stockholm 175W assignments to the United Kingdom for Sound Broadcasting Stations in this band are at present vacant. 190 of these are in the 95–100 Mc/s band and were included to permit the further development of VHF Sound Broadcasting in the event of existing fixed and land mobile radio services being withdrawn at any time in the future; the remainder are reserved for broadcasting but planning was on a largely theoretical basis and changes are made under a recognised procedure, if assignments are found to be unusable in practice.
§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Postmaster-General (1) which radio station, other than the British Broadcasting Corporation, is using that part of the very high frequency broadcast band lying between 95.0 and 100.0 megacycles; and what are its technical characteristics, namely, location, radiated frequency, deviation, radiated power, polarisation, and mean aerial height;
(2) why the band lying between 87.5 and 88.0 megacycles which, in the International Telecommunication Union Radio Regulations, Geneva 1959, is allocated to broadcasting services in Western Europe, contains no assignments to the United Kingdom; and whether this band is already in use in the United Kingdom for other services or is available for broadcasting stations with an effective radiated power not exceeding 1 kilowatt.
§ Mr. BennRegulations Nos. 264 and 265 of the International Telecommunication Union Radio Regulations give international recognition to the allocation in the United Kingdom of the band 87.5 to 88 megacycles a second to the land mobile service and of the band 95–100 Mc/s to the fixed and land mobile services. The lower band is extensively used in the United Kingdom by private mobile radio services and is not allocated in this country to the broadcasting service. The upper band is extensively used by Police and Fire Service but a few broadcasting station assignments are permitted by agreement between the Government Departments concerned.