Subject: [NEXTEL-1] WRC Deals Come Fast and Furiously

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 03:12:32 -0400

WRC Deals Come Fast and Furiously
Jun 30, 2003

As the International Telecommunication Union's World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC) enters its final week in Geneva, expect a flurry of activity on the spectrum
front at the plenary level. Big issues that involve lots of money need to be
worked out quickly.

Commenting on the progress so far, WRC Chair Veena Rawat said that "a number of
extremely important, but delicate issues have been settled" at the committee
level. She added that "intensive activity is going on to resolve other difficult
issues."
Last week, the WRC delegates worked out some compromises at the committee level
that will be considered during the plenary session. One committee reached an
agreement that will lower the minimum dish size for fixed satellite services (FSS)
in the 13.75-14 GHz band, in exchange for power limits to cut interference with
U.S. military radars that operate in that band.
The agreement, pushed by the U.S. delegation, will allow the U.S. Department of
Defense to continue operating radars in this band with only minimal interference,
while allowing FSS operators to expand their services.

The agreement also provides an expanded 10 MHz protective band for the Space
Research Service used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
for satellite relay links and support of the Space Shuttle and the International
Space Station programs.

The accord will allow earth station antennas for geostationary FSS systems to have
a minimum diameter of as little as 1.2 meters, down from the current 4.5 meter
limit. To protect military radars, however, the satellite systems will have to
abide by power limits set at -115 dB.

In addition, a committee agreed to allocate an additional 455 MHz of spectrum in
the 5 GHz band for wireless local area networks that use the Wi-Fi standard.
Under the deal, the lower end of the 5 GHz spectrum will be used for indoor
applications. Interference mitigation techniques and power limits will be imposed
to the wireless systems to protect existing services in the whole 5 GHz band.

The committee also agreed to allocate spectrum in the 5 GHz band to Earth
exploration satellites and space research. The committee members further agreed to
protect radionavigation systems that use the band by upgrading them to primary
status. The upgrade will protect military radar systems.

Another issue that has been the subject of much negotiation is the question of
high altitude platform stations (HAPS). These are new projects that aim to provide
wide-area fixed wireless services from balloon-like devices located in the Earth's
stratosphere. Some countries want to use the 47.2-47.5 GHz and 47.9-48.2 GHz bands
for HAPS use.

Several countries, however, said there needs to be a lower frequency allocation
for HAPS because of the excessive rain attenuation that occurs at 47 GHz. A WRC
committee agreed to permit the use of HAPS in the 27.5-28.35 GHz and 31-31.3 GHz
band.

In addition, a resolution was approved at committee level that will pave the way
for the deployment of new technologies for wideband and broadband public safety
and disaster relief applications.

The new resolution identifies a number of frequency bands/ranges to achieve
regionally harmonized spectrum for advanced public protection and disaster relief
solutions.

While many issues were worked out, there was a fundamental disagreement in
committee last week regarding earth stations on board vessels (ESV). Should ESV be
considered as a fixed-satellite service or a mobile-satellite service? The Arab
states consider ESV to be a mobile maritime satellite service and want the
provisions in the ITU regulations to be amended by this conference to reflect
that.  However, Asian, European and American countries regard ESV as a
fixed-satellite service. So this will need to be worked out this week, although
with numerous other issues on the WRC agenda.

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