Berita

By Carmelo Rivera, Chairman, Working Group for Regional and World Radiocommunication Conferences Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL)

Over 60 personnel in leadership roles are currently dealing with 24 World Radiocommunication 2019 (WRC‑19) agenda items and 30 sub-issues (see the Report of the CPM to WRC‑19). These numbers do not reflect the hundreds that have been involved in the drafting, discussing, re-writing, modifying proposals, footnotes, resolutions and tables of allocation.

The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) Permanent Consultative Committee — II (Radicommunication and Broadcasting) (PCC-II) has met a total of seven times since the last World Radicommunication Conference held in 2015 (WRC‑15), in various locations.

As of the latest meeting, held in April 2019, the conference preparatory outcomes of the Americas region include:

• 32 Preliminary Proposals (PPs) (Proposals from a Member State not supported by another);
• 39 Draft Inter-American Proposals (DIAPs) (Proposals supported by two or more Member States);
• 22 Inter-American Proposals (IAPs) (Proposals supported by at least six Member States) (not considered final until membership agrees that discussion has ended on the issue).

Of the 22 IAPs, only eight are (at the time of me writing this article) ready to be sent forward to the ITU for discussion during WRC‑19. These can be found as Document 11 on the Documents and Proposals page of the WRC‑19 website, and include: WRC‑19 agenda items 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.16 (5250–5350 MHz, 5350–5470 MHz and 5850–5925 MHz), 9.1 (9.1.2) and 9.1 (9.1.8).

I mention the numbers of people, meetings, and agenda items, just to give an idea of the scope of work that has been undertaken in preparation for the upcoming world conference in just one of six regions around the world.

Other IAPs, where there is general agreement are: parts of 1.4, 1.8, 1.10, 1.13, 1.14, 1.16, 7, 9.1 (9.1.3, 9.1.4, 9.1.5, 9.1.6) but, as already mentioned, discussion on these agenda items are still continuing, and were not yet deemed ready to submit them to the WRC.

At the time of me writing this article, we have one meeting left to finalize our deliberation of these and other agenda items that have not yet reached the level of support to enable them to be considered Inter-American Proposals.

I mention the numbers of people, meetings, and agenda items, just to give an idea of the scope of work that has been undertaken in preparation for the upcoming world conference in just one of six regions around the world.

I have to assume that similar work is ongoing in the other five regions to some degree. Before we know it, the time for preparation will be over and, as we have done in the past, thousands of us will meet for a month (more for some of us). Or rather, as I like to put it, I get to spend a month with thousands of people from around the world where I don’t have to explain what I do for a living. During that month we will not only come to final decisions on the hundreds of inputs, but we will also decide on issues that we will be discussing and working on for the next three to four years.

The amount of work that goes into each and every WRC never ceases to impress me. For that reason, I am extremely grateful to all that have shown their dedication and poured their hard work into the many hours required before we can even start our discussions. The army of subject matter experts that have worked and will continue to work to make this conference a success will probably never receive more than a pat on the back for a job well done.

I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all, from those that have attended and participated in the development of CITEL’s inputs, the rapporteurs and group chairs, the CITEL secretariat staff, the ITU staff, and the members of other regional organizations that have helped us along the way. I sincerely hope I haven’t left anyone out.

See you in Sharm El-Sheikh. Best of luck to all!

https://news.itu.int/wrc-19-representing-the-americas/