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Telephone: +41 22 730 6039
Fax: +41 22 730 5939
E-mail: pressinfo@itu.int
by Malcolm Johnson
Chairman of the Conference Preparatory Group
Radiocommunications Agency (United Kingdom)
European preparations for World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) are coordinated within the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT).
In order to deal effectively with the continuous programme of specialized work and tight deadlines imposed by the two-yearly cycle of conferences, a permanent and largely autonomous working group known as the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) was established in 1994 to plan and coordinate European preparations for WRCs.
The main tasks of the CPG are to develop European Common Proposals (ECP) for WRCs and the CEPT Brief for WRCs and Radiocommunication Assemblies.
The European Commission and other European bodies with an interest in telecommunications, participate in the CPG. In particular, the European Union has recognized the CPG as the competent body to carry out European preparations for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) radio conferences. The result is that most European countries now rely extensively on the CPG preparations to determine their national positions for WRCs.
Strategy for WRC-97
The major objective of the ECPs to WRC-97 is to promote and ensure the harmonious development of radio services in a competitive environment.
The length and breadth of the WRC-97 agenda has, not unexpectedly, resulted in a large number of highly detailed specialized proposals. The ECPs for WRC-97 are about treble the volume of the final submission to WRC-95: some 287 individual proposals have been circulated to the 43 member countries of CEPT for their agreement covering 18 major topics, including proposals for 16 new Resolutions and 2 new Recommendations for WRC-97.
Europe places great importance on the proposals which deal with the improved regulatory procedures and frequency allocations needed for new fixed and mobile satellite services (non-GSO systems, in particular) and satellite feeder links, together with the necessity to protect the terrestrial and satellite services sharing the same frequency bands. The main aim is to provide the improved spectrum efficiency necessary for the terrestrial and satellite services to satisfy the escalating demand for personal communications. In developing its proposals, Europe took particular care to protect the extensive European terrestrial services when evaluating additional frequency band allocations to the mobile-satellite service (MSS) and any changes in the radio regulatory provisions for the fixed-satellite service (FSS).
The underlying theme of the European proposals for WRC-97 will be to complete the work started at WRC-95 on the comprehensive review of the Radio Regulations (agenda item 1.2). The refinements necessary to ensure the consistency of the procedural articles have turned out to be both more extensive and of a more subtle nature than envisaged. A major complication has been how best to integrate the revised procedures for Appendices 30 and 30A (agenda item 1.10) into the revised procedures of the Radio Regulations. The objective here is to establish a unified procedure for the notification, examination and recording of assignments in the Plans associated with Appendices 30 and 30A.
The comprehensive nature of the European preparations is further illustrated by the very extensive set of proposals developed on the revision of the Radio Regulations governing the maritime mobile service (agenda item 1.6) prior to full implementation of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) on 1 February 1999.
Another major priority for Europe at WRC-97 is the completion of the revised procedures for HF broadcasting (agenda item 1.4) which were left pending at WRC-95. As a result of early consultation with other regional groups a wide measure of agreement was reached in the recent Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) on the form of a seasonal planning procedure.
Consultations
During WRC-95 it became evident that other regions were also becoming well coordinated. Europe welcomes this trend because early interaction between the regional organizations in their preparations for conferences is seen as essential to reducing divergences between the various proposals to conferences and avoiding any misunderstandings as to the objectives of the proposals. Several worldwide informal groups were therefore established with other key players, to help prepare for WRC-97. Europe attaches great importance to the discussions within the informal groups and between regional organizations.
In particular, past experience has shown that satellite and HF broadcasting issues both give rise to prolonged debate and hard fought compromises, hence the importance attached by Europe to bringing proposals forward for discussion at the earliest opportunity in the Special Committee on regulatory/procedural matters, Study Groups, the CPM and the network of informal groups.
Europe’s main objectives at WRC-97
Consistency of regulatory procedures
On procedural matters, the proposals developed in Europe for agenda item 1.2 will amount to a very extensive revision of Chapter III and Appendix S5 of the simplified Radio Regulations.
The proposals are based on Chapter 1 of the CPM report to WRC-97, which, in turn, reflects the results of the studies undertaken by the Radiocommunication Sector (ITU–R) in order to ensure consistency between the various parts of the Radio Regulations. In particular, Europe fully supports the proposal made in the CPM-97 report concerning the status of assignments. The importance of resolving the difficulties surrounding the deletion of No. S8.2 at WRC-97 cannot be stressed too highly.
Appendices 30 and 30A
The proposals on agenda item 1.2 are intimately linked with action required under agenda item 1.10 regarding the procedures of Appendices 30 and 30A of the Radio Regulations and, in particular, the location and the possible simplification of the regulatory procedures associated with these two Appendices. The European proposals for WRC-97 seek to continue along the same lines as the extensive work carried out by the Voluntary Group of Experts and WRC-95 in simplifying the Radio Regulations into a clearer and more consistent set of provisions.
As outlined in the CPM report, the basic advantage of this approach (termed "Approach 2" in the report) is to retain the simplicity and convenience for users of the Radio Regulations of being able to find in a single, readily accessible place — Articles S9 to S14 — all the regulatory procedures associated with the coordination and notification of their assignments for all unplanned and planned space and terrestrial services in all frequency bands, including those covered by Appendices 30 and 30A.
Section 6.5 of the CPM report contains the results of the comprehensive studies undertaken by the ITU–R in relation to the procedural/regulatory aspects of agenda item 1.10. This report identifies various approaches and solutions to update and improve the existing provisions applying to the services to which these frequency bands are allocated, as regards:
- the location of the procedures applicable to these services;
- the scope for the simplification of these procedures;
- the need for updating and amending these provisions to take into account technological progress, the experience in applying them, and the need for correcting shortcomings and inconsistencies which have been identified.
Comprehensive proposals will also be presented at WRC-97 on the revision of the Plans contained in Appendices 30 and 30A using a structured approach which aims to:
- adopt new technical parameters (Step 1), i.e., 5 dB downlink e.i.r.p. reduction, improved receive Earth station antenna pattern, new transmit Earth station and receive space station antenna patterns and new protection ratios;
- ensure flexible and efficient use of orbit/spectrum resources so that all ITU Members are guaranteed essential capacity (Step 2);
- consider the example Plans shown in the CPM report;
- protect the Plans from non-GSO FSS systems by establishing hard limits and reviewing Resolution 506;
- deal with sharing situations not presently covered by Appendices 30 and 30A.
New allocations for the MSS and FSS
The major subject area of additional frequency allocations for the MSS and FSS will be handled under agenda item 1.9.1. These services are explicitly mentioned, all other radiocommunication services in the frequency bands under consideration for MSS and FSS allocations have to be considered. In particular, Europe places great importance on the protection of the terrestrial services.
Below 1 GHz Europe will not propose any additional allocations, so as to safeguard existing services and the future development of terrestrial services.
With regard to the frequency bands below 3 GHz, Europe continues to place a high priority on the future development of terrestrial mobile services. New allocations to the MSS or any review of provisions for MSS must not constrain the development of terrestrial systems, especially the terrestrial component of IMT-2000 at 2.6 GHz. Europe has, however, developed proposals on the MSS with the intention of improving access to the spectrum for MSS where sharing with other services has been studied and is feasible.
Above 3 GHz the main objective is to promote co-existence between non-GSO and GSO FSS systems. New non-GSO and GSO FSS systems should both provide access to broadband applications to end users on a worldwide basis, but these satellite systems cannot be considered independently from the needs of the terrestrial service. Sharing studies have therefore been carried out and form the technical basis for the European proposals. These studies are characterized by the use of hard limits and a balanced sharing burden which eliminate the need for detailed coordination.
The conclusion is that, by implementing proper sharing conditions in the Radio Regulations, further development of non-GSO FSS, GSO FSS and the terrestrial service is possible without resort to band segmentation. The European proposals follow this guideline with the aim to use and to share spectrum in the most efficient way.
Regarding the vexed question of the 19/29 GHz bands, Europe maintains its view that there should be no extension of spectrum for MSS feeder links. A further objective is to protect terrestrial fixed service use in these bands. To this end, Europe will propose tighter pfd limits in the 18.9–19.3 GHz band from non-GSO FSS, and in the 19.3–19.6 GHz band from non-GSO MSS feeder links, for systems with more than 100 satellites.
This text is an extract from ITU News 8/97