U.S. WRC-12 Objectives ‘Largely Realized,’ U.S. Official Says
GENEVA -- U.S. objectives, including a broadly defined 2015 agenda item to spur mobile broadband, were largely met during the four-week World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), which ends Friday, officials said. The conference has been “very successful,” said Decker Anstrom, head of the U.S. delegation. The work by more than 150 countries to resolve each of the 33 agenda items was “effective and collaborative,” he said, and U.S. objectives have been “largely realized.” The U.S. is pleased with the agenda provisionally set for the 2015 conference, he said.
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The U.S. advanced its national security and economic competitive interests during the 2012 conference, Anstrom said. The 2015 agenda item to consider allocations for mobile broadband is “comprehensive,” he said. The U.S. achieved each of its three main policy objectives for shaping the debate over the next three years, he said.
All bands can be studied as part of the ITU-R process, Anstrom said. The current and future needs of existing services “need to be considered,” he said, and the process should promote the goal of global harmonization.
The U.S. is “very pleased” with the global allocation in the 5030 to 5091 MHz band for aeronautical mobile route service to support line-of-sight operations for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations, Anstrom said. The allocation and decisions based on a new agenda item “will be the cornerstones for the foundation for the framework” for commercial UAS applications, he said. Congress has authorized a joint Federal Aviation Administration-Department of Defense effort to use six sites in the U.S. to begin figuring out how to manage unmanned aircraft on a more systematic basis in nonsegregated airspace, he said.
A WRC decision to make a global primary allocation of 300 MHz for radiolocation services will support enhanced radar systems for national security and civilian applications, Anstrom said. Another key decision charted the terms for transition from marine communications from analog to digital, he said. The WRC also approved an allocation that sets the stage for the next generation of space research and the post-shuttle era of manned and robotic flight, he said.
The U.S. is very interested in several of the agenda items fleshed out for the 2015 conference, which can be characterized as “a mobile conference,” Anstrom said. Work under one agenda item will consider additional spectrum allocations for mobile broadband, he said. There will also be more study into frequency bands allocated to the fixed satellite service for “control and communications” by UAS in nonsegregated airspace with both manned and unmanned flight, he said. The agenda item will address “non-payload communications,” according to a copy we obtained. “That’s the last piece of the cornerstone that was laid” at the 2012 conference, he said. Spectrum requirements and regulatory actions for new era of wireless avionics intra-communications is “a very exciting agenda item” for 2015, he said.
Consideration of Arab and African proposals to allocate 694 to 790 MHz to mobile during the conference posed some challenges because of the timing of the digital transition in ITU region 1, given its complexity in Europe, Anstrom said. “Africa and Arab states can move ahead and begin to plan” subject to compatibility and sharing studies in the normal ITU-R processes, he said, and they'll be reviewed by the 2015 conference.
The conference allowed a “preliminary allocation” pending the results of future studies demonstrating the allocations can be made “literally the day after the 2015 conference,” Anstrom said. The effort to identify bands “shaves three to four years off” of the time period normally associated with the process of allocating the spectrum, he said. The U.S. is “very impressed” with the leadership in ITU region 1 to deal with “a very complex set of issues,” he said.
Issues related to use of the geostationary arc “came to the fore” and “were very much highlighted” during work at the conference, said Richard Beaird, State Department deputy coordinator for international communications and information policy.
The satellite registration process has been streamlined and made more effective, Anstrom said. The quality of the Master International Frequency Register has been improved, he said, and ITU member governments’ rights with respect to frequency assignments were preserved.
Work on advance publication, coordination, notification and recording procedures for frequency assignments pertaining to satellite networks will likely become “a rolling agenda item” for future conference, Beaird said. Efforts “in the light of experience” will focus on refining what’s becoming “an exceedingly complex area to manage” given the number of satellites in operation, the diversity and sophistication of services, he said. There are 19 items provisionally on the 2015 agenda, Anstrom said.