Mobile Allocations for African, Arab Countries Move Ahead
GENEVA -- African, Arab and European officials have preliminarily agreed to mobile allocations, with the entry into force immediately following the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), an official told us at the 2012 conference. The resolution, given initial approval at our deadline, calls for an allocation to the mobile service in the band 694 to 790 MHz in ITU region 1 on a co-primary basis with other primary allocated services, and to identify it for International Mobile Telecommunications, the international standard for advanced wireless communications. Broadcasters continued to raise concerns. More approvals will be needed.
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The decision was the result of many meetings and much compromise, Arab and African officials said. The compromise is “very good,” an Arab official said. Concerns continued to be raised in various meetings with continued use of frequencies by systems in the aeronautical radionavigation service in Algeria and a small number of other countries.
A WRC decision to allocate the band 694 to 790 MHz to mobile services would cause “considerable problems” in Europe, where the band is heavily used for terrestrial broadcasting, the EBU said in a press release. Many long-term licensing arrangements are in place, it said. WRC allocations would cause considerable disruption, additional expense and loss of services for millions of viewers across Europe, the EBU said. The band is crucial to the future development of innovative new terrestrial services, it said.
Europe’s five-year Radio Spectrum Policy Program to strategically plan and harmonize use of spectrum to spur the internal market may be in jeopardy, the EBU said. The European Parliament will vote on the program this week, it said. The policy program strikes a fair balance, it said. Mobile operators can use it to increase wireless data traffic, while ensuring sufficient spectrum for broadcasting, it said.
The 2015 conference will specify the technical and regulatory conditions for the allocation and decide on the lower edge, the draft resolution said. Coordination with neighboring countries will be required, it said. ITU-R studies will focus on channeling arrangements in the band, existing arrangements, regional and global harmonization in channeling arrangements, compatibility with services allocated in the bands, and solutions for applications that support broadcasting.
Discussions on mobile use of the band 790 to 862 MHz over the weekend weren’t resolved during the last of the regularly scheduled committee meetings Monday, officials said. Discussions continued at our deadline. Algeria said big difficulties would result if Italy and Tunisia were added to a transitional list of countries using 790 to 830 MHz for mobile because of legacy systems. Italy said broadcasting and mobile services allocated in Algeria in that band fall under the provisions of the Geneva 2006 regional agreement. Italy asked Algeria to revise its regulation and act in accordance with the rules. Italy has not ratified the regional agreement, and problems associated with Italian interference in UHF frequencies are being discussed in the conference. Neighboring countries have complained for years about Italian operations in UHF that don’t conform to the rules.
The issue of including Italy and Tunisia will likely be discussed this week during a plenary meeting, an official said. An Italian official said that country didn’t need to discuss anything. Tunisia and Italy asked Algeria for the technical basis for its claim. They said including their territories was a matter of principle. Algeria said it is trying to protect aeronautical radionavigation and mobile service systems.