Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Regulatory recommendation (European spectrum)

ERC Recommendation 70-03 relating to the use of Short Range Devices (SRD), Annex 10: radio microphone applications including assistive listening devices

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/cept-erc-rec-70-03/ · 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 CEPT reference for the radio bands and power limits European countries may open to assistive listening devices and systems; national rules can differ.

Key findings

  • Designates for assistive listening devices 169.4-169.475 MHz and 169.4875-169.5875 MHz at up to 500 mW e.r.p., 173.965-216 MHz at 10 mW e.r.p., and 863-865 MHz at 10 mW e.r.p. (shared with radio microphones and personal cordless audio devices).
  • Designates 1656.5-1660.5 MHz for assistive listening systems at 2 mW per 600 kHz e.i.r.p., under the conditions in ECC Report 270; an individual licence may be required.
  • For 173.965-216 MHz, which digital radio (DAB) also uses, requires a threshold of 35 dBµV/m to protect a DAB receiver 1.5 m from the device and operation at least 300 kHz from the edge of an occupied DAB channel, and warns that assistive listening devices may have to move if broadcast use changes.
  • Lists 100 Hz-9 kHz for inductive loop systems for people with hearing loss, at 120 dBµA/m at 10 m.
  • Describes assistive listening systems as serving people with hearing loss in public spaces such as airports, railway stations, churches and theatres, with receivers worn by users or built into their hearing aids.
  • States that not every entry is available in every country: national restrictions are in its appendices and the EFIS database, and national licensing restrictions are likely in the 174-216 MHz broadcasting band.

Limits

A recommendation to national administrations, not law in itself; what a given country allows must be checked in its national rules, as the document says. It sets spectrum and power only, not audio performance or coverage. The edition read is dated 5 June 2026 (latest amendment); its Annex 10 pages are marked as the October 2025 edition.

Read the original

docdb.cept.org/document/845

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Cited in

Cite this source

CEPT Electronic Communications Committee (ECC). ERC Recommendation 70-03 relating to the use of Short Range Devices (SRD), Annex 10: radio microphone applications including assistive listening devices. European Communications Office (ECO Documentation Database). 5 June 2026. https://docdb.cept.org/document/845 (accessed 9 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/cept-erc-rec-70-03/

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