It may at last soon be legal in the UK to use low-powered FM transmitters to broadcast the output of MP3 music players to radios - in-car and at home.
Communications watchdog Ofcom last week published a consultation document about amending the venerable Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 to allow the legal use of this sort of gadget without a license.
Griffin (with the iTrip) and Belkin (TuneCast) are among a considerable number of the companies offering such low-powered transmitters, though not all sell them in the UK. From our viewpoint, the changes being discussed are long overdue and we just hope that, as a BBC story suggests, it will be legal to use them by 2007. Or, ideally, even earlier.
Ofcom's brief includes supporting the development of innovative radio applications and its consultation document also discusses the license-free use of other wireless technologies. These include CB radios; narrow-band 24GHz short-range radar (for in-car and other uses); Digital PMR 446 walkie-talkies; and Inmarsat BGAN and High Density Fixed Satellite Service (HDFSS) terminals.
Consultation on all these issues lasts for a little over two months. Anyone interested can visit Ofcom's site and let the regulator know their thoughts before September 22. We'd be keen to share those thoughts, too, in this thread over in the HEXUS.community.
HEXUS.links
HEXUS. community :: discussion thread about this article
BBC - MP3 gadget set for legalisation
Ofcom consultation - Amending the Wireless Telegraphy (Exemption) Regulations 2003
Griffin Technology - home page
Belkin UK - TuneCast for iPod
Historical.links
BBC - Ofcom rethinks ban on iPod gadget (May 2006)
BBC - UK bans iPod gadget (August 2003)
The Register - UK ‘bans’ iPod radio add-on (July 2003)
