Geneva served as venue last 20-21 February for the first session of the 2015 Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM15-1), the first gathering to prepare for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15). The meeting was chaired by Aboubakar Zourmba (Camaroon), aided by Mohamed Al-Muathen (United Arab Emirates), Glenn Feldhake (United States of America), Shesh Mani Sharma (India), Nikolay Varlamov (Russia) and Kyu-Jin Wee (Republic of Korea).
The CPM is a privileged discussion forum in which ITU members participate. At its first session, the group discussed the following, based on results of the 2012 Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-12) and the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference:
- The structure of the report the CPM should submit to WRC-15 (in particular, chapters were identified by major themes and working procedures were set);
- The organisation of preparatory studies in accordance with the agenda for WRC-15 and future conferences (identifying for that purpose the ITU-R groups that should be responsible for preparing each of the WRC-15 agenda points);
- Determination of the activities calendar (potential meeting dates and deadlines for submitting contributions).
The agenda of the next conference considers, among other aspects: spectrum for mobile/IMT, broadband public protection and disaster relief (PPDR), amateur, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), fixed satellite, satellite maritime mobile, satellite mobile, satellite earth exploration, automatic identification system (AIS) technology, wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC) and radio location-finding. This agenda requires validation by the ITU Council.
The discussions concerning points 1.1 (additional spectrum for mobile service and identification of additional bands for IMT) and 1.2 (allocation to mobile service of sub-band 694-790 MHz) of the WRC-15 agenda were complex. CPM15-1 decided to establish a joint group (JTG 4-5-6-7) to deal with these two points in particular, considering that the matters to study should take into account the interests of satellites (SG4), terrestrial services (SG5), radio broadcasting (SG6) and scientific services (SG7).
The result of the CPM after the second meeting is a report meant to help the organisations preparing for WRC-15. It will gather information available to date from the ITU members, ITU-R study groups and the Special Committee concerning relevant technical, operational and regulatory aspects/procedural issues for each of the WRC-15 agenda points.
The second WRC-15 preparatory meeting, CPM15-2, will be held in early 2015 (date to be confirmed by the ITU Council).
