The Radiocommunications Assembly (RA03) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was held in Geneva on 2-6 June, chaired by Japan. Some 400 participants were present, among them representatives of the member states, recognised companies, scientific and industrial bodies and United Nations bodies.
In the context of its mandate, the Radiocommunications Assembly approves, among others, the working programme inherent to the revision or introduction of questions. It determines the priority, economic implications and estimated schedule for completion of the respective studies. It also decides on the need to maintain, extinguish or set up Study Groups, assigning to each Group the items to study during the following study cycle. Among the various new and revised resolutions adopted is the revision of Resolution 1, which contains among others the working methods for the Radiocommunications Assemblies and Study Groups. The revision now includes a simultaneous procedure for adoption and approval of recommendations, contrary to the previous procedures for autonomous adoption and approval. Also approved were the proposals presented by the director of the Department (BR) for appointment of the president and vice president of the various working groups in the Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R).
RA03 also discussed results of the work undertaken by the ITU-R Study Groups during the 2000-2003 study cycle and considered 33 recommendations for approval. Most concerned topics in discussion on the agenda of the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC03), which was held from 9 June to 4 July.
These documents cover diverse areas such as IMT-2000, Radio Local Area Networks (RLAN), the use of Earth Stations on Board Vessels (ESVs), the protection of IMT-2000 systems in 2.5 GHz from interference from satellite broadcasting systems (BSS) and the protection of passive services such as Earth Operating Service by Satellite and the Radio Astronomy Service.
In the end 32 recommendations were approved, though in some cases with reservations as to their content, mainly from the Arab administrations and with regard to the above mentioned issues. The recommendation on the co-existence of BSS and Fixed Service in 2.5 GHz will be reassessed in the context of Study Group 9.
