RES646 – 361 – MOD RESOLUTION 646 (REV.WRC-15) Public protection and disaster relief The World Radiocommunication Conference (Geneva, 2015), considering a) that the term “public protection radiocommunication” refers to radiocommunications used by responsible agencies and organizations dealing with maintenance of law and order, protection of life and property and emergency situations; b) that the term “disaster relief radiocommunication” refers to radiocommunications used by agencies and organizations dealing with a serious disruption of the functioning of society, posing a significant widespread threat to human life, health, property or the environment, whether caused by accident, natural phenomena or human activity, and whether developing suddenly or as a result of complex, long-term processes; c) the growing telecommunication and radiocommunication needs of public protection agencies and organizations, including those dealing with emergency situations and disaster relief, that are vital to the maintenance of law and order, protection of life and property, disaster relief and emergency response; d) that many administrations wish to promote interoperability and interworking between systems used for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR), both nationally and for cross-border operations in emergency situations and for disaster relief; e) that existing systems for PPDR applications mainly support narrowband/wideband voice and data applications; f) that, although narrowband and wideband systems will continue to be used to meet PPDR requirements, there is a growing need for broadband applications to support improved data and multimedia capabilities, which require higher data rates and higher capacity, and appropriate spectrum may need to be made available on a national basis to meet these growing needs; g) that new technologies for broadband PPDR applications are being developed in various standards organizations, e.g. International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) technologies that support higher data rates and higher capacity for PPDR applications, and these technologies are also being used to meet the needs of PPDR agencies and organizations; h) that continuing development of new technologies and systems, such as IMT and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), may be able to further support or supplement advanced PPDR applications;