Radio interfaces

The radio interface consists of a sheet with technical data and radio specifications, indicating the technical parameters that must be complied with in order to guarantee the essential requirements that all radio equipment must comply with in order to be placed on the market, free movement and use.

La Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the marketing of radio equipment, which repeals and replaces the previous one Directive 1999/5/ECin Article 3 it lays down the essential requirements to be met by all telecommunications equipment using the radio spectrum, and Royal Decree 188/2016, modified by Royal Decree 374/2021, approving the Regulation establishing the requirements for the marketing, commissioning and use of radio equipment, develops the conformity assessment procedures in order to ensure compliance with the aforementioned essential requirements according to the aforementioned Directive 2014/53/EU.

The State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures (State Secretariat) publishes as a resolution in the Official State Gazette the interfaces regulated in Spain that have been notified to the European Commission. Furthermore, any radio equipment intended to be placed on the market using frequency bands whose use is not harmonised throughout the European Union shall be subject to the information procedures laid down in the Regulation. Directive (EU) 2015/1535the European Parliament and the Council establishing a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on information society services.

In turn, these are the technical parameters required to be able to operate in Spain in accordance with the attribution, according to the National Frequency Allocation Board (CNAF), of frequency bands to the various radio communication services, in the absence of interference and with a view to achieving the greatest possible efficiency in the use of the spectrum, given the limitation of this resource.

These essential requirements are aimed at ensuring radio compatibility, making effective use of the radio spectrum and ensuring user safety. They are required by virtue of the aforementioned Directive 2014/53/EC, the European Parliament and the Council. The specifications of the interfaces do not always remain unchanged, since due to their markedly technical content, they must be updated in accordance with the constant technological evolution in the field of communications that encourages the introduction of new communication services and new technologies that are increasingly efficient both in the use of the available spectrum and in the services offered to the user. In addition to this reason, there may be other regulatory reasons, such as CNAF updates.

For the same reasons, sometimes the need arises to repeal certain interfaces/ being able to be replaced by others or simply disappear when the device and standard to which they refer has lost its validity, either due to abandonment of the system, or due to technological updating, let us cite as examples the transition from analog to digital television and the abandonment of certain fixed service pipelines.

All interfaces notified by Spain and published in the Official State Gazette can be consulted in the EFIS database (ECO Frequency Information System) and also on the website of the State Secretariat.

The EFIS database is a computerised application of the European Communications Office (ECO), carried out in accordance with the guidelines set out in ECC/DEC(01)03. In turn, Commission Decision 2007/344/EC on the harmonised availability of information on spectrum use in the Community, through a common information point and by harmonising the format and content of that information, provides that Member States shall use the EFIS information system as a common access point, in order to make information on spectrum use available to the public via the Internet in each Member State.

For the purpose of clarifying the interface information on the website of the State Secretariat, and of arranging the interfaces in groups of related applications or according to the radio service as appropriate by nature and description of the interface type, the interfaces have been classified according to the following applications: Broadcasting, Aeronautical Communications, Maritime Communications, Mobile Service, Fixed Point-to-Point Service, Fixed Point-to-Multipoint Service, Satellite Communications, Short-Range Devices (SRD), Meteorology, Defense, Amateurs, Citizen Band and other interfaces.