The next ITU-R World Radiocommunication Conference will take place in Geneva from 23 January to 17 February 2012 (WRC-12). The Conference is aimed to review, and, if necessary, to revise the Radio Regulations: the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the satellite orbits.
The preparatory work was accomplished by the Conference Preparatory Meeting CPM11-2 held in February this year. The meeting agreed the Report on technical, operational and regulatory/procedural matters to be considered by the WRC-12.
Positions get defined
After this preparatory period, regulators and stake holders define their final positions to be presented and defended during the Conference. In Europe, the CEPT has already submitted European Common Proposals (ECPs) for several agenda items. The ECPs for the remaining agenda items will be finalized beginning of November.
Broadcasters and EBU have contributed to the preparatory work on several agenda items related to broadcasting. The positions have now been refined and published as Technical Report 12 ‘EBU Positions on WRC-12 Agenda items related to broadcasting’. Common positions with other broadcasting unions are also under discussion and several contributions to the WRC-12 from the World Broadcasting Union are expected.
Crucial work still to be done
The agenda items for the conference in 2016 are under discussion and will be until the end of the WRC-12. The inclusion of an agenda item to ask for additional spectrum allocations for mobile broadband services, including IMT, is likely to succeed as it seems to have support from most regulators worldwide.
It remains to broadcasters and other interested parties to ensure that such agenda item, if agreed, is defined in a broad sense, without reference to any specific frequency band and with the request to perform studies to analyze spectrum use efficiency of mobile services; spectrum requirements for other services need also to be taken into account to ensure that adequate amount of spectrum is made available to all services.
For further information on WRC-12 preparations and CPM11-2 results, consult our wiki pages http://workspace.ebu.ch/display/ecsrap/WRC-12+preparations (pages open to EBU Members only).