European Radiocommunications Office

European Radiocommunications Office
Peblingehus
Nansensgade 19-3
DK-1366 Copenhagen
Denmark

tel: +45 33 89 63 00
fax: +45 33 89 63 30
email: ero@ero.dk
url: http://www.ero.dk

Mark Thomas: Director
Adriaan Brinkerink: Deputy Director

The European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) was formally opened on 6 May 1991 and is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. ERO is the permanent office supporting the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) of the CEPT. ECC is the Committee that brings together the radio- and telecommunications regulatory authorities of the 45 CEPT member countries.

ERO was established on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). In 1996 this MoU was replaced by the “Convention for the establishment of the European Radiocommunications Office” which has to this date been signed by 30 CEPT administrations and which defines the terms of reference for ERO and the funding arrangement.

The management function for ERO is performed by the ERO Council, consisting of representatives from the contracting administrations.

As one of the steps in a reorganisation within CEPT and in order to reduce overheads and increase efficiency, ERO's sister office, the European Telecommunications Office (ETO), was merged with ERO with effect from 1 January 2001, and ERO took over some of the functions previously carried out by ETO and now performs these tasks on behalf of the ETO Administrative Council.

Another change in the CEPT organisation took place in October 2001, when the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) was established, replacing the European Committee for Telecommunications Regulatory Affairs (ECTRA) and the European Radiocommunications Committee (ERC).

Functions

In addition to supporting the ECC and its Working Groups ERO has the following functions:

to provide a centre of expertise which shall act as a focal point, identifying problem areas and new possibilities in the radio- and telecommunications fields and to advise the ECC accordingly;
to draft long-term plans for future use of the radio frequency spectrum at a European level;
to support and work together with national frequency management authorities;
to conduct consultations on specific topics or parts of the frequency spectrum;
to publish ECC Decisions and Recommendations and keep a record of the implementation;
to identify and promote best practice in administration of national numbering schemes and number assignment procedures;
to oversee the registrar service for the European Telephony Numbering Space;
to manage the One-Stop-Shopping procedure (OSS) for satellite licences and authorisations.

ERO is the distribution point for all ECC documentation and also provides detailed information about the work of the ECC via the ERO web site www.ero.dk. The ERO web site is an important element in the process where information is provided about the latest developments within the ECC with reports of recent meetings and approved texts of ECC Decisions, Recommendations and Reports.

Consultation:

Consultation is the key to many of ERO’s activities, and procedures have been introduced to enable organisations to participate in the work of the ERO. Such organisations include government departments, public radiocommunications operators, manufacturers, users, private network operators, service providers, research institutes, standards making bodies and national, European or international organisations whose membership has an interest in European communications matters.

ERO organises a three-day CEPT Conference every 12-18 months. Furthermore, specific open meetings are arranged, where interested parties can obtain information, discuss and give feedback on the activities of the ECC and ERO as well as on other topics of current interest in the area of radio- and telecommunications.