Freenet is a personal mobile radio network in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was originally introduced in 1996 as a product name of

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...

and uses part of the frequency spectrum of the former Telekom C-Netz carphone network.

History

The original frequency allocation for Freenet encompassed three channels, each with a 12.5 kHz spacing. In January 2007, three additional channels were added, bringing the total up to six. The ordinance only permits handheld transceivers which must not permit an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...

(ERP) of 1 W. Originally, the Freenet frequencies were allocated until the end of 2005. The Federal Network Agency has extended this allocation until 31 January 2025.

Specification and Radios

With the maximum permitted ERP of 1W, a range of 3 km can be assumed. Due to the lower frequencies in the VHF band, signal attenuation from objects, such as houses and trees, is not as high as in the UHF band used by SRD and

PMR446 PMR446 (Private Mobile Radio, 446 MHz) is a licence exempt service in the UHF radio frequency band and is available for business and personal use in most countries throughout the European Union. PMR446 is typically used for small-site, sa ...

radios. Only specially certified and licensed transceivers may be used; the manufacturer must provide a declaration of conformity as well as a concise manual in German and a

CE mark On commercial products, the letters CE (as the logo ) mean that the manufacturer or importer affirms the good's conformity with European health, safety, and environmental protection standards. It is not a quality indicator or a certificat ...

. The user is not permitted to modify the device. The

Federal Network Agency The Federal Network Agency (german: Bundesnetzagentur or ) is the German regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, post and railway markets. It is a federal agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Acti ...

has laid out strict parameters for modulation, bandwidth and channel spacing in its ordinance. To be observed is, that relatively high prices for Freenet devices have kept away domestic users from the service. All radios, which can transmit optional on other frequencies or / and switchable power are prohibited by the Federal Network Agency. So the number of legal available devices is mutch smaller than in UHF PMR. Only a small number of companies produce radio for the Freenet-service, due to the small market. Kenwood,

, Retevis and a German re-seller, selling modified Wouxun radios under the brand "Team Tecom" are the only companies for Freenet devices.

Channel table

Freenet channels are within the

2 meter band The 2-meter amateur radio band is a portion of the VHF radio spectrum that comprises frequencies stretching from 144 MHz to 148 MHz in International Telecommunication Union region (ITU) Regions 2 (North and South America plus Hawaii) ...

business radio allocations.

FM-analog mode

Digital Modes

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! style="width:4em" , Kanal (

FDMA Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) is a channel access method used in some multiple-access protocols. FDMA allows multiple users to send data through a single communication channel, such as a coaxial cable or microwave beam, by dividing ...

) !Middelfrequency in MHz !Chanelwith in kHz , - , 1 , 149,021875 , 6,25 , - , 2 , 149,028125 , 6,25 , - , 3 , 149,034375 , 6,25 , - , 4 , 149,040625 , 6,25 , - , 5 , 149,046875 , 6,25 , - , 6 , 149,053125 , 6,25 , - , 7 , 149,084375 , 6,25 , - , 8 , 149,090625 , 6,25 , - , 9 , 149,096875 , 6,25 , - , 10 , 149,103125 , 6,25 , - , 11 , 149,109375 , 6,25 , - , 12 , 149,115625 , 6,25

Freenet abroad

Freenet is a national radio allocation that is used in Germany only. Foreign regulatory bodies usually do not permit use of Freenet devices since the frequencies are often already allocated for different radio services. Instead,

has been harmonised on a European level. Due to possible interference with Swiss military networks, it is not permitted to use the Freenet frequencies in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

and on the Swabian Alb at elevations of 600 metres or above.

References

External links

Frequenzzuteilung für Freenet (PDF-Datei; 12 kB)

Verfügung 5/2015 (PDF-Datei; 74 kB)
Bandplans