English - The General Radio Frequency Centre

The General Radio Frequency Centre

The General Radio Frequency Centre is a organization in the structure of the radio frequency service of the Russian Federation. It directly participates in the majority of procedures of the spectrum man-agement regulation.

The General Radio Frequency Centre grants the finding of the radio frequency service – issued exper-tise results of the possibility of the civil application filed radio electronic facilities use and their EMC with the current and planned for the usage radio electronic facilities which was prepared taking into account the corresponding expertise findings and agreements with the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Protection Service and the Federal Security Service in respect of deployment of filed radio electronic facilities. The finding is the most important document in the procedure of obtaining license for the ra-dio frequency usage.

The General Radio Frequency Centre activity is regulated by the following documents:

No. 126 FZ, Federal Law on Communications of 07.07.2003
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1002 of 25.12.2005 on the State Radio Frequency Service under Ministry for Communications and Informatization of the Russian Federation
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 279 of 03.05.2005 on the Radio Fre-quency Service
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 213 of 27.03.2008 on some Issues of the Radio Frequency Service Activity
Provision on the Order of Expertise, Document Examination and Decision making on Radio Frequency Assignments or Radio Frequency Channels for Radio Electronic Facilities within the Allocated Frequency Bands
The Decisions of State Commission on Radio Frequencies.

H i s t o r y

In 1992, the State Telecommunication Inspection (STI) was established in the Russian Federation tasked to regulate the use of radio frequencies and radio-electronic facilities.

Main tasks of the newly created organization included:

Assigning frequencies to civil radio-electronic facilities and issuing the required permissions.
International coordination and registration of frequency assignments to radio-electronic facilities.
Issuing the permissions for the operation of radio-electronic facilities and their importation to Russia.
Coordination of technical specifications for the development and serial production of radio-electronic facilities.

Thus, the State Telecommunication Inspection being an institution of the Russian Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Russian acronym MINSVIAZ), was responsible only for the regulation in radio communication, television and radio broadcasting. Regulation in wire communication was be-yond the STI’s competence.

In 1993, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Russia adopted a decision on strengthening the state’s role in the field of communications in general. This decision was a demand of the times fea-turing a rapid expansion of telecommunication markets flooded with companies eager to provide communication services.

Therefore, on 15 November 1993, Governmental Resolution № 1156 focused on enhancing the state’s role in regulating communication was adopted. The State Telecommunication Inspection became the basis for establishing the Service of State Supervision over Communications (GOSSVIAZNADZOR) in the Russian Federation as a single system comprising MINSVIAZ bodies. GOSSVIAZNADZOR played an important role in protecting customer rights during the transition to market relations in the field of communication.

In 2000 the Government of the Russian Federation adopted the Resolution № 380 by which the GOSSVIAZNADZOR was reorganized. As a result the system on supervision on telecommunications and informatization (ROSSVIAZNADZOR) was established. The State Radio Frequency Service was established in 2000 by Resolution of the Russian Federation Government № 1002 to issue the permis-sions in the telecommunications field. According to the Resolution the State Radio Frequency Service comprises the General Radio Frequency Centre and seven radio frequency centers (RFC) of Russia’s federal districts:

RFC of the Central Federal District (Moscow)
RFC of the North-Western Federal District (St. Petersburg)
RFC of the Southern Federal District (Rostov-on-Don)
RFC of the Privolzhsky Federal District (Nizhny Novgorod)
RFC of the Urals Federal District (Ekaterinburg)
RFC of the Siberian Federal District (Novosibirsk)
RFC of the Far-Eastern Federal District (Khabarovsk).

All radio frequency centers are federal state unitary enterprises which are not financed from the budget.

The General Radio Frequency Centre regulates the use of centrally assigned radio frequencies and civil radio-electronic facilities throughout the territory of the Russian Federation and ensures interna-tional and legal protection of frequency assignments to radio-electronic facilities of terrestrial and sat-ellite services of the Russian Federation.

On 01.01.2004 the new Federal Law on Communications was entered into force in the territory of the Russian Federation. As a basis of this low was taken the principle of equal access to the telecommuni-cations services for all citizens of Russia.

On 03.05.2005 the Decree № 279 established the new Resolution “On the Radio Frequency Service”. According to this Decree the General Radio Frequency Centre, as well as seven state unitary enter-prises, radio frequency centers of federal districts and subsidiaries in each constituent entity of the Federation are consolidated in the common structure of the radio frequency service supervised by the Federal Telecommunications Agency.

On 12.03.2007 the Decree of President of the Russian Federation № 320 «On Federal Service for Su-pervision of Mass Media, Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage” was adopted. As a result the ROSSVIAZNADZOR and the Federal Service for Supervision in the area of Mass media and Protection of Cultural Heritage were combined in the common federal body of the executive power. Besides the monitoring and supervision in the field of mass media, informatisation technolo-gies, telecommunications, protection of cultural heritage and intellectual property rights the new Ser-vice was empowered to supervise the activity of the radio frequency service.

On 27.03.2008 the Government of the Russian Federation adopted the Resolution №213 “On some issues of the Radio Frequency Service Activity”, according to which the General Radio Frequency Centre and radio frequency centers of federal districts were brought under jurisdiction of the Federal Service for Supervision of Mass Media, Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage.

As a result of some changes in the structure of the Government the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications and Mass Media (ROSSVIAZCOMNADZOR) was established in May of 2008. The Resolution № 419 «On Federal Service for Supervision of Communications and Mass Media” (on ROSSVIAZCOMNADZOR) was adopted on 02.06.2008. According to this Resolution the General Radio Frequency Centre and radio frequency centers of federal districts were brought under jurisdic-tion of this structure.