[DigitalToday reporter Jin-ho Lee] The government will allow outdoor operation of radar for autonomous mobile robots and ease regulations on industrial wireless chargers to expand physical AI. It will also shorten the approval period for radio wave test permits in the defence and defence industry sectors.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Tuesday it will push for on-site improvements to radio wave regulations to support new industry innovation and strengthen public convenience and safety in radio wave use.

The ministry prepared the measures based on a public idea contest and surveys of industrial demand carried out since March. It focused on three areas: support for new industry innovation, improved convenience in everyday radio wave use, and safety and disaster prevention.

It will expand the operating range of 76 to 81 GHz object-detection radar, which could be used only indoors such as in factories, to outdoor areas including factory driving spaces, parking lots, and loading and unloading yards. The ministry will prepare a plan to revise related technical standards within this year. It will also ease rules on industrial wireless chargers. It is reviewing raising the permit-exemption threshold from the current 1 kW or below to 3 kW or below. It will also prepare a plan by December to supply frequencies needed for long-distance wireless charging.

For the defence and defence industry sectors, it will push to introduce a fast-track for radio wave test permits. It will designate areas where the radio wave environment can be controlled as permitted zones for radio wave experiments and, after an integrated pre-review, prepare a plan within this year to shorten the permit period to 15 days. The ministry also plans to resolve on-site difficulties by simplifying procedures such as verifying test records and certificates for individual modules in the electromagnetic compatibility assessment process for finished products.

In daily life, it will extend by 6 years the use period for 400 MHz analog walkie-talkies for daily use, which was set to expire this year, to Dec. 31, 2032. The aim is to reduce the burden on small business owners and users in leisure and daily-life settings of replacing devices.

It will also introduce a radio wave-based public guidance service for the hearing-impaired and older people. From 2027, the ministry will run pilot services that use hearing loops and Bluetooth Auracast, among others, to deliver guidance in public facilities and emergency disaster information to personal hearing aids or earphones.

In the safety sector, it will set usage bands and output standards for ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and wall-penetrating radar (WPR), which are used to inspect ground subsidence and underground facilities. It will also supply frequencies for bird-detection radar to prevent collisions between aircraft and birds, and will prepare technical standards within this year, including antenna output and operating methods.

Choi Woo-hyuk (최우혁), director general of the Information Security and Network Policy Bureau at the ministry, said, "As we enter the era of physical AI, we will remove unreasonable regulations so promising new industries such as manufacturing and logistics sites and K-defence can use radio waves to take off faster." He added, "We will flexibly and swiftly innovate radio wave regulations by reflecting the voices of industry."