GENEVA-With just a few months to go until the next ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-2000) on 8 May-2 June in Istanbul, Turkey, tensions are already running high as rival national delegations jostle to secure a bigger slice of the radio frequency spectrum to support rapid growth in a wide range of services, from cellular telephony to radio astronomy.
The remarkable growth enjoyed by the world’s wireless and satellite operators during the last decade has left its mark on the once-staid WRC, which has recently earned a reputation for bitter conference-room clashes, shameless politicking by commercial operators, and some serious back-room wheeling and dealing. If the atmosphere at the two-week-long Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) held in November in Geneva is any indication, WRC-2000 promises to be no exception.
While Bob Jones, director of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) Radiocommunication Bureau (BR), said his team is working hard to encourage as much consensus-building as possible before the event, he admitted this year’s conference is unlikely to be anything short of grueling. “It’s a constant challenge because the exponential growth in wireless services means the agenda is huge,” Jones said. “Trying to deal with all the urgent issues in a timely manner requires a marathon effort.”
For the uninitiated, the arduous debates that have come to characterize the WRC are couched in terms so arcane as to be virtually unintelligible. Yet behind all the bitter wrangling over seemingly small pieces of radio spectrum lies more complex issues, such as the future viability of a nation’s telecom manufacturing sector, equality of access to global resources, and the long-standing telecommunications development gap between the world’s rich and poor countries.
Down to earth
The 1995 and 1997 WRCs were dominated by the satellite industry, which lobbied frenetically to secure sufficient spectrum for the myriad mobile satellite systems (MSS) currently in the pipeline. But while satellite issues will continue to be an important element during the first WRC of the new millennium, the most contentious issues are likely to be much more earth-bound.
Big battles are already looming in at least two key areas: additional IMT-2000 spectrum allocations and the proposed replanning of the frequency bands set aside for TV and radio broadcasting.
While a scuffle over European plans to launch a satellite-positioning service to rival the U.S.-controlled global positioning system (GPS) also is in the cards, the other contentious issue-sharing Ku-band resources between geostationary (GSO) and non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite systems-was miraculously resolved during the Geneva CPM. A late-night meeting in the Skybridge boardroom resulted in an agreement between Skybridge and the U.S. delegation.
The crux of the problem revolved around U.S. opposition to a popular ITU plan outlining MSS Ku-band power, with rumors widely circulating that the United States was blocking acceptance of the plan at the behest of Skybridge rival, PanAmSat.
“I believe we’ve now reached total closure on this issue, thanks to a compromise solution put forward by Canada,” said Mark McGann, vice president-strategic affairs with U.S.-based Skybridge.
The “Canadian compromise,” as it’s now known, essentially favored a middle ground between the ITU’s two proposed power limit options: Package A, supported by all delegations with the exception of the United States and Israel; and Package B, supported by the United States and Israel.
“Intelsat also had some technical concerns, but they’ve been ironed out,” said McGann. “While nothing’s written in stone until we get to Istanbul, we’re extremely optimistic that this issue can be taken off the `contentious’ list,” said McGann.
Global maneuvering
The same can’t be said for the imminent battle over additional spectrum allocations for IMT-2000, which seems certain to see the United States go head to head with Europe over an additional global spectrum allocation of 160 megahertz to support advanced third-generation (3G) services.
The push for more capacity is being led by the UMTS Forum, the 188-member organization charged with harmonizing Europe’s regional 3G deployment. Favored candidate bands for the new allocation are 2560-2670 MHz or 806-960 MHz.
“With a forecast 1 billion users by 2005 and 2 billion by 2010, there’s a pressing need for more spectrum within the next 10 years to support advanced services,” said UMTS Forum President Bernd Eylert.
But while the forum has solid support from Europe, Japan and other key delegations, most confidently predict the United States will block a global allocation.
“A unified approach has much to recommend it, but the most likely outcome will be a family of bands,” said Michael Goddard, director-spectrum and international policy with Britain’s Radiocommunications Agency and a prominent member of the European delegation (Conference Europeenne des Administration des postes et des Telecommunications, or CEPT), who pointed out that the United States has only recently relicensed some services in the prime candidate band.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult to turn around that decision,” he said.
U.S. Head of Delegation Frank Williams, meanwhile, remained publicly non-committal throughout the CPM, maintaining the United States was still evaluating its options.
The standoff between the United States and Europe over the issue of IMT-2000 spectrum likely will be accompanied by an equally highly charged tussle-this time over a European bid for additional spectrum to support a new satellite positioning system known as Galileo. Europe is looking for supplementary spectrum around the 5 GHz band to mount a challenge to the only existing advanced positioning system, GPS.
“The world relies on GPS for a growing range of services, particularly aircraft navigation,” said a veteran WRC delegate. “The war in the Balkans threw that dependence into sharp relief. When it comes to national security, no one wants to have to rely on a monopoly provider in another country.”
Changing allegiances
But it would be wrong to see WRC-2000 as a simple clash between European and U.S. interests. In a conference where yesterday’s enemy is today’s ally, the U.S. and European blocs are expected to join forces to oppose a strong push for replanning the bands currently allocated to satellite broadcasting.
The bid to have the Istanbul conference approve an increase from five to 10 channels per country is being led by the Arab and African delegations, which see the current dominance of U.S. and European broadcasters as a form of imperialism detrimental to their national cultures and, more concretely, their own nascent broadcasting industries.
“The current system was based around the concept of national broadcasting systems, yet large international systems are now delivering most of the world’s content,” said a prominent member of the Arab delegation. “For the Arab countries, urgent replanning will be the issue of the conference. We’re not prepared to wait until 2003.”
Europe and the United States, for their part, are skeptical about the wisdom of block-booking broadcasting spectrum on a per-country, rather than as-needed basis.
“It’s a classic ITU dilemma,” noted Skybridge’s McGann. “Should all countries be treated the same, even if they have no plans to initiate satellite broadcasting services, or should optimization of a scarce resource be the priority? Politically, it’s a very heated issue, and it’s going to be up to Europe and the U.S. to find a third way.”
Waiting in the wings
Finally, one small but important group is again looking to the WRC to finally provide the capacity it needs to launch services that could have great benefits for the world’s remote and disadvantaged communities
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Little LEO (low-earth-orbit) satellite operators, oft-overlooked amid the ballyhoo created by wealthier Big L
EO operators like Iridium and Teledesic, are hopeful WRC-2000 will grant them the allocations they failed to get in 1997. Operators like U.S.-based Final Analysis will be looking to the Istanbul conference to give the go-ahead for 10 megahertz of uplink spectrum in the 450-460 MHz band, plus 1-megahertz downlink capacity at 405-406 MHz.
Stymied at the last WRC by the reluctance of various services already located in those bands to share their spectrum, the Little LEO operators have spent the last two years working with the ITU in a bid to demonstrate their ability to operate without causing interference.
“We’re optimistic because we have very focused objectives for WRC-2000,” said Final Analysis Chief Executive Officer Nader Modanlo, whose company plans to launch a 32-satellite constellation in 2001 to provide remote monitoring and store-and-forward messaging. “Some other global [satellite] systems have obtained a great deal of attention and frequency allocations through extensive advertising and promotion. And some of those same systems may never become a reality. We’re hopeful that member administrations will recognize the importance of narrowband data systems to deliver the power of mobility on a global basis.”
