Geneva hosted on 26-30 October 2015 the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly (RA 15). The nearly 1100 participants included representatives from member states, recognised agencies, scientific and industrial bodies and regional organisations as well as from the ITU.
Per its mandate, the RA is responsible for the structure, programme and approval of studies to conduct within the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). Among others, it approves the working programme inherent to revising or introducing questions, determining the priority and estimated schedule for completion of the respective studies. The RA also decides whether it is necessary to maintain, dissolve or create study groups (SGs), assigning to each group the questions to study during the next study cycle.
RA-15 had several objectives, including analysis of spending and the estimation of costs incurred following decisions made by the Assembly, examination of the structure and working programme of the ITU-R study groups and reviewing the list of questions to be studied; it also revises the working methods of the Assembly and the study groups in line with the ITU Constitution and Convention. It examined and also approved new resolutions and/or revisions of the relevant ITU-R resolutions.
Highlights of the topics discussed at RA-15 include: i) the approval of new resolutions concerning studies, such as wireless systems/applications with a view to development of the internet of things (IoT); and ii) the characteristics of visible light or optical communications for broadband communication.
RA-15 notably revised ITU-R Resolution 1, which among others contains the working methods for the Radiocommunication Assemblies and study groups.
Regarding the ITU-R study groups, approval of the revision of Recommendation ITU-R M.1036-4 stands out. It aims to include new channels for international mobile telecommunications (IMT – terrestrial component) in the 694-960 MHz and 1710-2200 MHz frequency bands.
