Legal Frequency Rules for Meshtastic in the European Union

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Radio rules, national frequency plans and equipment requirements can change. Before transmitting, verify the current rules with the telecommunications regulator in the country where the device will actually operate.

Meshtastic is generally legal to use in the European Union when a compliant device is configured for an available licence-exempt short-range-device band and operated within the applicable power, duty-cycle and equipment rules. The complication is that there is no single “Meshtastic law” covering every European country. European institutions create a strongly harmonised framework, but national administrations still manage spectrum and enforce the rules inside their territories.

Who makes the rules?

Several organisations appear in discussions about European radio regulation, but they do different jobs.

Organisation or authority	Its role	What it means for a Meshtastic user
European Union and European Commission	Adopt binding EU legislation and harmonised technical conditions for short-range devices.	Creates a common basis for licence-exempt equipment and spectrum use within EU member states.
CEPT and its Electronic Communications Committee (ECC)	Coordinate spectrum policy among a wider group of European national administrations. ERC Recommendation 70-03 describes commonly accepted SRD arrangements.	Explains why similar 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz opportunities exist well beyond the EU, but a recommendation is not automatically national law.
ETSI	Produces technical standards, including standards used to demonstrate that radio equipment meets EU Radio Equipment Directive requirements.	Relevant to equipment conformity, efficient spectrum use and CE-marked products; it does not issue personal radio licences.
National regulator	Implements the national frequency plan, publishes local interfaces and authorisation rules, investigates interference and applies penalties.	Its current national rules are the final practical check before operation.

The European Commission’s short-range-device spectrum decisions provide the EU harmonisation layer. The CEPT/ECC ERC Recommendation 70-03 records the broader European coordination position, while ETSI EN 300 220-2 covers relevant non-specific short-range equipment below 1 GHz. The EU Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU governs the placing on the market and putting into service of radio equipment.

The practical Meshtastic region profiles

Meshtastic provides region settings that control frequencies and firmware power limits. Selecting the right region is essential, but the setting is a technical aid rather than a legal certificate. Current limits should always be checked in the official Meshtastic LoRa configuration table and against national rules.

Meshtastic profile	Firmware frequency range	Firmware limit	Practical note
EU_868	869.4–869.65 MHz	27 dBm ERP and 10% duty cycle	The normal high-power European profile. The limit applies to effective radiated power, not merely transmitter output.
EU_433	433.0–434.0 MHz	10 dBm ERP and 10% duty cycle	A lower-frequency alternative. A country’s wider 433 MHz SRD allocation may contain several technical conditions; this firmware profile does not describe all of them.
LORA_24	2.4 GHz profile	10 dBm and 100% duty cycle in Meshtastic’s region table	Available internationally in many places, but “worldwide” does not mean that every country has identical equipment and spectrum conditions.

For both EU_868 and EU_433, Meshtastic calculates the 10% duty-cycle limit over a rolling one-hour period. Ten percent means no more than six minutes of aggregate transmission airtime in an hour. Messages, position updates, telemetry and packets relayed for other nodes all consume airtime. It does not mean six continuous minutes followed by unrestricted use.

Power, ERP and antenna gain

The EU_868 figure is 27 dBm ERP, approximately 500 mW effective radiated power. ERP includes the complete transmitting system: radio output, cable and connector losses, and antenna gain relative to a half-wave dipole. A radio producing 27 dBm into an antenna with positive gain may exceed 27 dBm ERP unless its configured output is reduced to compensate.

As a simplified example, a 27 dBm transmitter, 1 dB of cable loss and a 3 dBd antenna produce approximately 29 dBm ERP. That would exceed a 27 dBm ERP ceiling. Accurate compliance requires using the antenna manufacturer’s gain basis correctly: dBi and dBd are not interchangeable, and 0 dBd is approximately 2.15 dBi.

High-gain outdoor antennas and high-power boards therefore deserve special attention. Buying hardware capable of greater output does not grant permission to use its maximum setting.

Licence-exempt does not mean unregulated

Normal Meshtastic operation uses shared short-range-device spectrum without an individual operator licence. Users must still respect the permitted band, radiated-power ceiling, channel-access or duty-cycle rule, equipment-conformity requirements and national restrictions. Shared-spectrum users also receive no guarantee of an interference-free channel and must not cause harmful interference.

Amateur radio is a separate legal service. Operating on an amateur allocation requires the appropriate licence and compliance with amateur-service rules, including identification and, in most jurisdictions, restrictions on encoded or encrypted messages. Enabling Meshtastic’s licensed or “ham” mode can remove firmware power restrictions; it does not create a licence, authorise a frequency or make encrypted private channels legal on amateur bands. See How Amateur Radio Complements Meshtastic for the practical distinction.

Why country pages are still necessary

EU harmonisation makes travel and equipment sales much easier, but it does not eliminate national spectrum administration. CEPT is also larger than the European Union, so a CEPT recommendation may influence both EU and non-EU countries without having identical legal force everywhere. National regulators can publish implementation details, transitional rules or interfaces that matter locally.

Consult the relevant guide before installing a fixed node or carrying a configured transmitter across a border:

Croatia and Slovenia are EU member states. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo are not currently EU member states, so their national regulator’s rules—not EU membership assumptions—must be checked directly. CEPT-aligned limits can still be similar.

A simple compliance checklist

Set the correct Meshtastic region for the country of operation; never leave a new radio on an inappropriate default.
Confirm the current national SRD table and any local restrictions with the country’s regulator.
Keep total ERP within the limit after adding antenna gain and subtracting cable loss.
Allow the firmware to enforce duty cycle and avoid unnecessarily frequent telemetry and position broadcasts.
Use conforming radio equipment, suitable antennas and clean power supplies.
Recheck the rules before crossing a border, changing bands, fitting an amplifier or moving to amateur-radio operation.

Regulators may investigate interference, order transmissions to stop, seize non-compliant equipment or impose penalties under national law. Exact consequences vary by country, so they should not be guessed from a general European article.