The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) participated as part of a Qatari delegation, in the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), which was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from October 28 - November 22, 2019. This conference is one of the most important conferences on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) calendar.
The agenda of the conference considered several important items, which have been included based on the proposals that were submitted by the administrations, the results of WRC-15, the report of the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) and what needs to be taken into consideration for the existing and future services.
The CRA has submitted a number of contributions to the conference that are related to several topics of interest to Qatar, where the CRA contributed with 29 documents as part of the Arab Regional Group, in addition to 8 separate documents submitted on behalf of Qatar related to some vital services of interest to Qatar.
The CRA's contributions were welcomed by a large number of European and American administrations, especially that the contributions were in line with the global trends of frequency allocation that support number of modern technologies and applications and contribute to the digital transformation and achieving one of the Sustainable Development goals; industry, innovation and infrastructure.
The topics that were supported by the CRA during the conference included, identification of frequency bands for the future development of international mobile telecommunications (5G technology), including the possibility of allocating additional frequencies to the mobile service on a primary basis, High-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and issues related to Wireless Access Systems (WAS) including Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs).
The CRA also supported the use of certain frequency bands of earth stations on mobile platforms communicating with geostationary space stations in the fixed-satellite service, topics related to the meteorological-satellite service and the Earth exploration-satellite service, as well as supporting the consideration of spectrum requirements for tracking, controlling and telemetry in the space operations service for non-geostationary satellites with short duration missions.
The CRA also supported global trends towards considering the spectrum requirements and regulatory provisions related to the introduction and use of the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS), and to take appropriate actions to facilitate global or regional harmonized frequency bands to support railway radiocommunication systems between train and trackside (RSTT) within existing mobile service allocations, in addition to considering possible global or regional harmonized frequency bands, to the maximum extent possible, for the implementation of evolving Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) under existing mobile-service allocations.
“The CRA participation in WRC-19 was extraordinary, and the CRA contributions were welcomed by many administrations, especially that CRA’s contributions all in all were converged with the global trends on many sensitive topics that were considered in the Conference. The CRA in coordination with a number of administrations has been able to fulfil the objectives that it has looking for to achieve in the Conference. All ITU Member States rely on WRC outputs to develop their National Frequency Plans in their respective countries for the coming three to four years till the next Conference,” said His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA.
“The Conference has accomplished several achievements on a global level, which are important pillars that support and develop the telecommunications sector of Qatar and encourages introducing advanced and innovative technologies to meet the needs of people of Qatar. The WRC-19 resolutions included the identification of 17.5 GHz bandwidth for the deployment of 5G technology on several mobile frequency bands and 2 GHz bandwidth to be used by international airlines to provide broadband services to passengers while travelling. Also, the resolutions included the identifications of appropriate frequency bands for Nano-Satellite that contribute to academic fields and scientific research. In addition to the issuance of a resolution that provides adequate frequency bands for HAPS, which supports broadband applications that allow for faster commercial deployment of these systems at a reasonable economic cost,” he added.
It is worth to mention that the general scope of the WRC agenda is set five to six years in advance, while the ITU council set the final agenda two years before the Conference, with the concurrence of a majority of the Member States. Under the provisions of the ITU Constitution, the Conference may revise the Radio Regulations (RR), the International Treaty Governing the use of Radio-Frequency spectrum, the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits and any associated plan that is related to allocating and assigning frequencies and addressing any global issue related to radiocommunications; Radio and Radiocommunication Bureau and review their activities.
