Volunteer mountain-rescue staff in Scotland are being asked to write to the UK regulator Ofcom to complain about increased spectrum prices that could drive them out of the life-saving business. The BBC reports that the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland has asked its members to write to the regulator in response to the current consultation on Maritime and Aeronautical radio use, which is open until the end of October, complaining that the "Administered Incentive Pricing" proposed will cost the charity thousands of pounds it doesn't have. The situation is similar for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute: which currently pays a discount rate of £38K for a licence around 156Mhz, but could end up with a bill knocking quarter of a million quid, annually. Even if they retain their 50 per cent discount, that's another £100K the charity is going to have to find if lifeboats are going to be able to talk to each other and the shore
Volunteer mountain-rescue staff in Scotland are being asked to write to the UK regulator Ofcom to complain about increased spectrum prices that could drive them out of the life-saving business.
The BBC reports that the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland has asked its members to write to the regulator in response to the current consultation on Maritime and Aeronautical radio use, which is open until the end of October, complaining that the "Administered Incentive Pricing" proposed will cost the charity thousands of pounds it doesn't have.
The situation is similar for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute: which currently pays a discount rate of £38K for a licence around 156Mhz, but could end up with a bill knocking quarter of a million quid, annually. Even if they retain their 50 per cent discount, that's another £100K the charity is going to have to find if lifeboats are going to be able to talk to each other and the shore
Please tell me that Emergency Services don't have to pay for their rights to radio spectrum.
My head will explode if someone doesn't write soon with a logic for this discord. [Even if it is someone other than someone.] AAAAGGGGHHHHH Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Of course, as they are invovled in the saving of lives they exist in a grey area where the authorities would be obliged to take over if they didn't exist, but not necessarily with the same level of expertise. This would be expensive, so it is in the government's interest to sort this out.
Unfortunately it's a case of left hand/right hand and, as is usual in the UK, we end up with the worst of all possible worlds. A compromise will be agreed, but only as we get to the point of the organisations threatening to disband. keep to the Fen Causeway
