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The World Radiocommunication Conference<\/b> (WRC-12) opened in Geneva on Jan. 23 and ran to Feb. 17. Just before the event, the ITU released a series of news items on issues that the conference would face, including several that affect the satellite sector, but what were experts describing as the important satellite items?<\/p>\n
Julie Zoller, former Radio Regulations Board (RRB) chair and current member, wrote on \u201cimproving the international satellite regulatory framework.\u201d Improvement is indeed needed, as she notes that member states file hundreds of satellite network registrations with the ITU each year, but only roughly one-third of those filings complete the process.<\/p>\n
There are lots of reasons why networks drop out of the process. Zoller says that the ITU has been examining the principles behind registrations as far back as the radio conference in 1997, where Resolution 80 on due diligence for satellite networks was first adopted. WRC-12 will be looking at changes to the satellite network registration procedures, under agenda items 7 and 8.1.<\/p>\n
Zoller examines the impact of the rules that the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) and the RRB now use, in particular to review \u201creliable information\u201d that a recorded assignment was not brought into regular operation or is not being used as expected. This issue is a \u201chot potato\u201d in light of recent RRB decisions and will be hotly debated at WRC-12.<\/p>\n
Zoller anticipates that the WRC-12 may express views on this matter, but \u201cestablishing rigid criteria, such as a minimum number of days to meet the \u2018regular operation\u2019 criterion, would likely be difficult\u2026\u201d She also notes possible reforms in suspending the use of satellite assignments, problems of harmful interference (with a veiled reference to Iran\u2019s jamming of satellite signals) and international monitoring of satellite operations. On that last topic, even if the BR does not have the necessary resources to monitor, Zoller suggests that WRC-12 might \u201cexpand the ability of administrations to seek support in identifying a source of harmful interference, which would include activating the international monitoring system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yvon Henri, chief of the ITU Space Services Department, wrote on \u201cefficient use of the spectrum\/orbit resource,\u201d which is similar to a series of workshops and seminars that the BR has held on these topics in the last few years. He asks whether existing procedures could be improved to ensure efficient use and identified how the ITU was \u201cgoing from talk to action\u201d by taking regulatory steps \u201cto reduce the number of unused networks that clutter the spectrum\/orbit and make entry difficult for newcomers.\u201d These steps include asking administrations to review their satellite filings, checking public information on satellites in use and asking for specific information when a satellite does not appear to be where it is supposed to be.<\/p>\n
In describing difficulties that the BR faces, Henri refers to many of the same issues that Zoller outlined. He writes that the different scenarios of today require a \u201cclearer understanding of the concept.\u201d He says that the BR considers that a satellite should be present and operating for a minimum of three months.<\/p>\n
Since administrations have never agreed to that concept, it will be a challenge at the WRC-12 to reach consensus that includes this particular understanding. Opinions and national positions differed substantially on this issue going into the conference, as shown by Zoller\u2019s comments. The three-month standard seems plucked out of the air and more definitive than most comparable ITU standards, although some administrations support a clear definition for legal certainty. What most want above all is a standard that is enforceable and applied equally to all satellite registrations.<\/p>\n
Henri also outlines a series of possible improvements, ranging from updated due diligence to more information requirements. One very notable suggestion is to \u201ccombat the practice of setting overly aggressive or sensitive parameters, which block coordination.\u201d He also suggests limiting coordination requirements and supports international monitoring. One item that I do not believe WRC-12 will take up, however, is his suggestion to introduce spectrum pricing. Many nations are dead set against this type of international fee structure.<\/p>\n
The baseline question raised by Henri is \u201cwill WRC-12 meet these challenges?\u201d We can review this at the SATELLITE 2012 event and reach our own conclusions.<\/p>\n
\nGerry Oberst is a partner in the Hogan Lovells Brussels office.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) opened in Geneva on Jan. 23 and ran to Feb. 17. Just before the event, the ITU released a series of news items on issues that the conference would face, including several that affect the satellite sector, but what were experts describing as the important satellite items? Julie Zoller, former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}