Complaints Received [ Ofcom ]

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

Harold Norcliffe

Dear Office of Communications,

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide me with
Information regarding the below.

All correspondence and recorded incidents of complaints related to interference due to unlicensed FM transmitters being used in Greater Manchester in the past two (2) years. Said transmitters would be using a legally issued frequency ie 90.6 FM for instance, that would have been issued to a legal radio station then subsequently abandoned by that radio station and not reissued by Ofcom for several years.

NB: Such owners of these transmitters in my personal opinion have a universal birth right to be creative and as much right to any available air space as any other bodies, without need for payment or license.

I understand that under the Act I am entitled to a response within 20
working day’s of your receipt of this request. Some parts of the request
may be easier to answer than others. Should this be the case, I request
that you release information as soon as possible.

If my request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify all
Deletion’s by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I will also
expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve the right to
appeal your decision to withhold any information or to charge excessive
fees.

I would prefer to receive the information electronically.
If you require any clarification, I expect you to contact me under your
section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance if you find any aspect
of this FOI request problematic.
Please acknowledge receipt of this request, and I look forward to
receiving the information in the near future.

Yours faithfully
MR HAROLD NORCLIFFE Without Prejudice
Copyright crown of England.

Yours faithfully,

Harold Norcliffe

Harold Norcliffe left an annotation ()

To help both parties with this request.

What is Ofcom’s official reasoning for cranking down on pirate radio?
Faith: Pirate stations don’t pay to have a licence and therefore there's the financial aspect to it.
Q. So are Ofcom actually a corporation with shareholders to consider and afraid of loss in revenue?

There are loads of other reasons, for example Ofcom says the frequencies interrupt with emergency services.
A. Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within Greater Manchester Police to locate information relevant to your request. I can confirm that the information you have requested is not held by Greater Manchester Police.

There are no notifiable offences that cover the circumstances that you have requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If the interference resulted in death or injury a crime would be recorded under the code appropriate to the level of injury; there are no incidents or crimes that contain ‘unlicensed FM transmitter’ or ‘unlicensed transmitter’ between 1st January 2011 and 1st April 2016.

In our experience that is not the case at all. Pirates would not be transmitting if there were an interruption. Ofcom talks about pirate radio like it is gang culture. They claim it’s a way of drug dealing, that the pirates talk in code to arrange drug meeting points. It’s completely ridiculous.

Yet Ofcom and the BBC allow unused official frequencies to sit idle and open to abuse from any criminals and/terrorists organisations. So failing along with the government to protect the general public.

Andrea: The fact that these people can be put in jail just for playing music is really quite shocking. They are put on the same level as drug dealers, gun crimes, and so on.

Taken from the website and added to by requester

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/two-ba...

Harold Norcliffe left an annotation ()

I am willing to now withdraw this request with a request that Ofcom and the British government would please realize that technology has advanced and improved considerably since the broadcasting rules were set up. My research has found that any small FM transmitter below 10 watts for home (non commercial use) will not interfere with any other transmissions incl TV and radio sets. This has long been realized by the FCC in the US and we need to catch up on many advances made in the broadcasting spectrum.

Mark Salter left an annotation ()

Just to let you know that the annotations you are adding here are not sent to Ofcom at all, you will need to 'send a follow-up' for them to get an email.

Regards
Mark

Harold Norcliffe

Dear Office of Communications,

Just to confirm that this request has now been closed by myself with annotations to be read please.

Yours faithfully,

Harold Norcliffe

Information Requests, Office of Communications

Dear Mr Norcliffe,

Thank you for emailing us to let us know that you have closed your request and for directing us to your annotations. I have provided the link to colleagues who work in this area.

Kind regards,
Jenny

Information Requests
Ofcom

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