The third meeting of project team A (PTA) of the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) to prepare European positions for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) was held last 3-6 October in Bucharest, Romania, chaired by Gerlof Osinga of the Netherlands and attended by nearly 45 representatives of administrations and delegates from private companies and the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R).
CPG PTA is responsible for preparing the European common proposals (ECPs), European positions for WRC-19 on the following issues: status of allocation of space science services (Earth exploration by satellite (EESS), satellite meteorology (MetSat), spectrum requisites for high altitude platforms (HAPs), short duration non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite systems, pico and nano satellites, and matters of regulatory nature such as the revision of provisions concerning national footnotes and the revision of ITU-R recommendations and resolutions involving the Radiocommunication Sector.
The meeting served to revise and update the first draft briefs, which are the base documents used to draw up future ECPs.
The following notes stand out:
- Regarding the status of space science service allocations (EESS, MetSat), this topic directly impacts sharing of the aforementioned UHF bands and is nationally relevant for entities that directly depend on those services, such as the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) and operators/providers of mobile satellite service (MSS). CEPT supports changing the secondary status to primary for MetSat allocation in the 460-470 MHz band and consequently the allocation of that band to EESS with a view to harmonising the spectrum needs of both services. The imposed restrictions are the fact that MetSat has prevalence over EESS and that both should not impose additional restrictions on existing services in that frequency band; from the national standpoint, this agenda item begins to raise questions that should be followed very closely in order to safeguard existing national uses (the case of space science systems in which IPMA has a stake) and envision the creation of conditions whereby the national space sector industry can develop and implement micro-satellite systems;
- The question of spectrum allocation for short duration non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites (cubesats) is a topic we deem very important, because sharing of VHF frequency bands is very difficult due to the density of applications and scarcity of spectrum. It must be recalled that in Portugal there is also a national industry and universities which are developing cubesat projects (e.g. the satellite of the Superior Technical Institute in the scope of a European Space Agency (ESA) initiative);
- Regarding the question of HAPs, the advance of new technologies and the multiple applications allowed by the convergence of services has awakened interest in such stations, specifically from the companies Facebook and Airbus. The ESA considers this to be one of the most important issues for the future of telecommunications, given that it will be possible to develop cross-cutting synergies/applications in the areas of Earth observation and satellite navigation. Nationally, there are companies developing prototypes or equipment for these new HAP stations, which from the spectrum management standpoint means special attention is required in order to prepare European and national positions suitable for the development of proposals and the consequent outcome of the next WRC.
The next meeting is scheduled for March 2018 in Copenhagen.
