Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Regulatory report (CEPT compatibility study)

ECC Report 270: Sharing studies between Telecoil Replacement Systems (TRS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) in the frequency range 1656.5-1660.5 MHz

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/cept-2018-ecc-report-270/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • CEPT Electronic Communications Committee (ECC)
  • European Communications Office (ECO Documentation Database)

Government (CEPT, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations, whose Electronic Communications Committee brings together national spectrum regulators)

Summary

The European regulators' study that preceded the 1656.5-1660.5 MHz designation for digital assistive listening systems in public spaces, shared with satellite uplinks.

Key findings

  • Describes "telecoil replacement systems" as digital radio links from a public address or programme feed to receivers worn by users or built into hearing aids, for airports, railway stations, churches and theatres, carrying three or more audio channels in 200-600 kHz.
  • States that, despite the name, these systems are meant to supplement telecoil systems in places where a loop is impractical.
  • Assumes indoor deployment on a licensed basis, and proposes a transmitter power of no more than 3 dBm e.i.r.p.; in its worked example, one 600 kHz channel under one satellite beam can take 59 transmitters at 3 dBm with 6 dB of wall loss, 21 at 12.5 dBm, and 1,472 at 3 dBm with 20 dB of wall loss.
  • Notes that no ETSI harmonised standard for these systems existed when it was written, so some parameters came from Recommendation ITU-R M.1076, and that not all system characteristics were defined.
  • Says coexistence with aircraft satellite terminals can never be fully ensured, but more than 600 hours of monitoring at sites in six countries detected no potentially harmful interference from aeronautical systems, and land terminals needed separation distances of at most about 250 m.
  • Suggests that administrations may manage deployment by licensing individual base stations.

Limits

A desk sharing study with limited monitoring; it models the UK under one satellite beam and says other satellite systems may give different results. It describes systems that were not yet fully defined and reports no products, user tests or audio performance.

Read the original

docdb.cept.org/document/1033

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Cited in

Cite this source

CEPT Electronic Communications Committee (ECC). ECC Report 270: Sharing studies between Telecoil Replacement Systems (TRS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) in the frequency range 1656.5-1660.5 MHz. European Communications Office (ECO Documentation Database). 26 January 2018. https://docdb.cept.org/document/1033 (accessed 9 October 2026).

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