RAIN Alliance, the non-profit industry organization supporting the development and adoption of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), welcomes the news that 10 new countries have confirmed their implementation of the upper European RAIN RFID frequency band, enhancing the capabilities of the technology and expanding its addressable market in the region.
The radio spectrum range used for RAIN RFID has historically been spread between 860 – 960 MHz. A narrowed band of 915 – 921 MHz was set up in Europe in 2018, offering performance benefits such as easier global product design, double communication speed and easier reader and system design, which supports low-power, and up to 40% longer-range tag reading. This upper European band has recently been reported as being implemented in 10 new countries with 35 European countries now making the higher frequency band available. For those few remaining, clarification is ongoing and only Germany, Greece and the Netherlands currently continue to solely use the lower frequency band, primarily where the higher band has already been allocated for military use.
“It’s great to see countries across Europe implement the upper RAIN RFID frequency band and bring its related benefits to deployments in their region,” comments Aileen Ryan, President, and CEO of RAIN Alliance. “Increased implementation of the upper RAIN RFID frequency band signifies continued growth of the addressable marketplace for RAIN RFID, with more countries and companies able to benefit from enhanced performance. More countries using the upper RAIN RFID frequency band is good news for supply chains in these jurisdictions, which can use it to further improve their operations and drive efficiencies across their organisations in new and exciting ways.”
The availability of the upper RAIN RFID frequency band across Europe aligns with the wider trend of growth in RAIN RFID deployments. Tag chip shipments continue to rise, reaching a record volume of 45.5bn units in 2023 – a third of which were sold in Europe – and are expected to reach 115bn units by 2028. Usage and adoption of RAIN RFID also continues to diversify, with new use cases for the technology proliferating across a variety of industries.
“Just as adoption and implementation of RAIN RFID is on the rise, so too are the use cases for the technology,” continued Ryan. “This includes using RAIN RFID for new applications, such as enabling more sustainable practices and supporting sustainability regulation such as the EU’s Digital Product Passport. RAIN RFID tags can provide vital information throughout a product’s lifecycle to inform how it is used, reused and dealt with at end-of-life, with use of the upper frequency band enhancing these capabilities further.”
The RAIN Alliance Radio Regulations Advisory Council is deeply engaged in global radio regulations and represents a forum for coordinating regulatory meetings, events and activities and preparing RAIN Alliance members for upcoming regulatory engagements. Further information on the RAIN RFID frequency range and resources from the Council can be found on the RAIN Alliance website.
For further RAIN Alliance information, please contact:
Fergus Straiton at iseepr (fergus@iseepr.co.uk / +44 (0)113 350 1922)
About RAIN Alliance
The RAIN Alliance is a non-profit organization to promote and support RAIN (UHF) RFID technology. RAIN RFID is a wireless technology that enables businesses and consumers to identify, locate and authenticate billions of items connected to the Internet of Things. RAIN Alliance is a global collection of companies and organizations which develop and deploy RAIN technology solutions addressing applications across many vertical markets. RAIN uses the GS1 UHF Gen2 protocol which ISO/IEC JTC1 has standardized as ISO/IEC 18000-63.
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