BEIRG Press release

[Pete McCrea]

An interesting little article here from BEIRG, who quite rightly are annoyed with Equiniti for selling our old gear back into the market!

[Ynot]

An interesting little article here from BEIRG, who quite rightly are annoyed with Equiniti for selling our old gear back into the market!

Cheeky b'stards!!!!!

[cedd]

Daft question, but where and how are they selling them? I'd have thought they'd need to advertise such a large sale of kit somewhere.

[David Lee]

Having had previous dealings with Equiniti on unrelated matters this does not suprise me.

[dbuckley]

Where can one buy this kit?

[kerry davies]

Amongst positions with banks and Capita and Jarvis at least one exec of Equiniti was a director of ATOS; http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/suicide_and_attempted_suicide_du

 

What did we expect but this kind of disgraceful behaviour from these kinds of people? We really are naive if we thought that someone, somewhere was not going to steal taxpayers money in this day and age.

[paulears]

If they sell the equipment overseas where there isn't an issue with channel 69 - I can't say I'm really bothered. I've had the money for surrendering mine. I don't think anywhere it said the kit was going to be destroyed, and as the equipment had to function, I'm not surprised they have an intention to distribute the kit and sell it on. If it was going to be scrapped, it wouldn't have really mattered if it worked. If the Government intention was to clear equipment from channel 69 as the primary reason for the surrender, and the compensation was a result of that need - then they would have been foolish to have allowed the contract with equinity to allow them to re-sell here. We dump our old fridges and TV sets at the local tip, and they sell them abroad - I can't see the difference really? Have I missed something really important? Selling them back to the UK market would be daft, but are they actually doing this?

[charlyfarly]

Seems similar to the taxpayer bailing out banks and then the banks paying themselves nice fat bonuses. Cheeky gits indeed.

 

Mind you the opening gambit of Equiniti's "about us" introduction:

There’s more to Equiniti than meets the eye.

:huh:

[Simon Lewis]

Selling them back to the UK market would be daft, but are they actually doing this?

That's implied in the press release, but not stated absolutely.

 

equipment is now being resold back into the band which taxpayers paid to remove it from

Equiniti are now gearing up their operations to release up to 80,000 channels for use in UK spectrum

An influx of under-priced equipment, which will not be licensable in just over a year, will grossly distort the UK microphone sale and hire market

 

So it does sound like it, but part of this (setting aside the taxpayer / Equiniti profit issues) is the fact that the manufacturers don't want the market (here or abroad) saturated with second hand gear.

[Alec]

Doesn't surprise me at all, and suspect that many people will pick up the kit as a bargain and use unlicensed, and continue to use unlicensed.

 

Do we know what will happen once the re-use of the spectrum starts? Will it stop the radio mic kit working? Or will it be more the other way round? Or "other"? I frankly think there'd be many people who'd happily use it (illegally) unless/until challenged.

[kerry davies]

The really annoying thing from my POV is that OFCOM used the excuse of under-registration by non-professionals in radio mic use for the changes to the system in the first place.

 

To then sell the equipment made redundant in professional circles to non-professionals who already have a history of "illegal" usage is sheer hypocrisy. You may not be bothered about overseas sales, Paul, but Chinese Ebayers could sell it right back to the amateur market over here.

 

The principle of a private company ripping off the taxpayer to make profits is bad enough, the misleading of an industry sector is unforgivable. They too are private business trusting in government to have a level playing field on which to compete. It is corruption and nothing more, sadly all too frequent in todays UK.

[AndyL]

If they sell the equipment overseas where there isn't an issue with channel 69 - I can't say I'm really bothered. I've had the money for surrendering mine. I don't think anywhere it said the kit was going to be destroyed, and as the equipment had to function, I'm not surprised they have an intention to distribute the kit and sell it on. If it was going to be scrapped, it wouldn't have really mattered if it worked.

 

Paul, the official reason that "It mattered that it worked", was because if it didn't then you had no expectation of being able to use it and therefore no entitlement to funding.

 

If the Government intention was to clear equipment from channel 69 as the primary reason for the surrender, and the compensation was a result of that need - then they would have been foolish to have allowed the contract with equinity to allow them to re-sell here.

 

You have hit the nail on the head, but it would appear that this is precisely what they did allow in the contract.

 

We dump our old fridges and TV sets at the local tip, and they sell them abroad - I can't see the difference really? Have I missed something really important? Selling them back to the UK market would be daft, but are they actually doing this?

 

Yes, they are actually doing this.

 

Doesn't surprise me at all, and suspect that many people will pick up the kit as a bargain and use unlicensed, and continue to use unlicensed.

 

Do we know what will happen once the re-use of the spectrum starts? Will it stop the radio mic kit working? Or will it be more the other way round? Or "other"? I frankly think there'd be many people who'd happily use it (illegally) unless/until challenged.

 

[Disclaimer] Obviously if you use radio transmitting equipment to transmit on a frequency for which you do not have a licence, or frequencies which are not licence exempt, that is an offence under the Communications Act / Wireless Telegraphy Act for which there are severe penalties on conviction. [/Disclaimer]

 

The upper part of the 800MHz band will be used for the mobile uplink leg of the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks. The (very powerful) LTE network base stations will be transmitting in the lower half of the band. Therefore the biggest source of potential interference to a radio mic operating in say 'channel 70' (863MHz to 865MHz) - perfectly legally - comes from out of band emissions from new 4G LTE 800 mobile devices. If you were to illegaly operate a radio mic or other device on lower frequencies below 862MHz the likelihood of interference increases steadily. Once you get below the half way mark around ch.65 you are moving in to base transmit (downlink) territory and the chances get much higher more of the time. Interference from base stations will be a lot more constant, interference from mobile devices - handsets, dongles etc. - will be very much less predictable. Punters = handsets. Sound check / rehearsals = no punters. You do the maths!

 

As to the question of radio mics interfering with the new LTE networks, clearly if something transmits on a frequency that is used by another service then interference will occur. How harmful that interference might be to the licensed service is one of those 'how long is a piece of string questions'. I don't think the mobile operators will take too kindly to any interference whatever the source, and they do not lack for 'resources' should they need to respond to a problem.

[paulears]

Got a letter from Equiniti today explaining about the sale.

The sale or lease of equipment in the UK is intended to support users/hirers in meeting any shortfall they may experience between now and the dealine.

Half of the sale or lease funds will be returned to the taxpayer.

 

The contract of sale will include a clause specifying they need to be operated in channel 70, converted to 38 or properly disposed of by 1st October 2012. They're asking for people who may wish to buy back kit to contact them on offer@equiniti.com

 

So they are selling the kit back because some people surrendered early and may be short of kit.

 

I'm not quite certain I really understand this?

[Bobbsy]

...and, of course, anybody buying it will stop using it as soon as the Olympics are over because everybody is so honorable when it comes to radio mic licenses.

 

Oh, look. A flying pig!

[Smiffy]

You old cynic Bobbsy! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif

S