Geneva served as venue last 8-10 June for the 18th meeting of the Radiocommunications Advisory Group (RAG), the first after the election of François Rancy of France to the post of Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR).
Much of the discussion was based on a report the new director submitted to the RAG, urging the members to take positions on some pending matters in this sector. Among them is the question of the tariff model associated to the registration of satellite networks in the Master International Frequency Register (MIFR). The director proposed that the members should indicate their opinion regarding a change of that model which would rebalance the rates paid by historic operators and new entries, with the suggestion that the former operators eventually pay more to benefit the latter. The RAG ended up not sustaining this proposal.
Four correspondence groups were also set up to continue to the work of advising the ITU-R director in the following areas: BR information systems; ITU-R Resolution 1 (Working methods for the Radiocommunication Assembly, the Radiocommunication Study Groups, and the Radiocommunication Advisory Group); Resolution 166 (Guadalajara, 2010) - Number of vice-chairmen of Sector advisory groups, study groups and other groups; and Strategy Plan.
The RAG also focused on the sector’s Operational and Strategy plans.
The next meeting of this advisory body will be held on 25-27 June 2012.
