UNII-3 in Belgium

[Theulis]

Hello all,

Does anyone know the regulation for UNII-3 in Belgium.
I have read in the Meraki and other forums that UNII-3 is allowed in other European counties, but I am not sure what the situation is in Belgium. I assume they all follow the ETSI standards, but I would appreciate any confirmation.

Thank you

Theo

[gabtoub · Accepted solution]

Hello! 

We are also very interested in usage of UNII-3 channels as we struggle with channel interference in ultra high density environnements and also with DFS events.

I've already made search about this topic and regulations, as we have the same question.

Some EU countries appears to allow it with restrictions (max EIRP of 25mW) , and according to this article, it's the same case for Belgium & Netherlands, so if you comply with legal requirements, it should be OK to use these channels.

As my sites are located in France i've checked with the radio frequencies allowances published by the local regulator ANFR - they indicate also that this band is allowed for "non specific applications" - including wireless data transmissions with same requirements for power limitation (source). 

Now, if you configured your Meraki network in EU domain, UNII-3 cannot be enabled on dashboard.

It's a shame as some other AP manufacturers allow this usage, and the hardware can support it... 

Opened a case with Meraki , their answer was clear : 

"Unfortunately, UNII-3 channels are currently not available in France (EU) regulatory domain networks, even when an EU country allows the usage of UNII-3 channels."

Regards,

Gabriel

[Theulis]

Thank you for the detailed reply @gabtoub

We are in the same situation. We cannot use DFS and we also have a lot of "noisy" neighbors. Plus we are a wireless-only place!

The Meraki support response was not great, since they were claiming that UNII-3 is not allowed in Belgium, which is not true.

Thank you, your response was clearer. I was not aware that whole EU is treated as a single regulatory domain. I assume we have hit a dead end, and probably another solution would work better for us. 

[Dirk]

Hi, firmware MR30.1 changelog mentions:

• UNII-3 Support in the EU (MR57, CW9162I, CW9164I, CW9166I)

[gabtoub]

Good news ! I'll try that when this release will be in RC status, we only have huge HQ sites with these AP models.