IMT in C-band to keep WRC-15 delegates up all night

The four-week conference, which started at the beginning of this week, will consider around 30 agenda items. None is likely to be more controversial than Agenda Item 1.1, the allocation of additional spectrum to mobile and its identification for IMT (also known as mobile broadband).

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents mobile operators, has enlisted a number of high profile figures in the mobile industry, including the chief executives of mobile operators AT&T and Etisalat, to help it press governments to identify 600–800 MHz of additional spectrum for IMT.

Nineteen frequency ranges have been studied in preparation for this agenda item. Of these, it is spectrum in the C-band (3.4 – 4.2 GHz) that could be said to be the most contentious issue.

The satellite industry is worried. Its stand at an exhibition adjacent to the WRC focuses heavily on the need to retain the band’s current fixed satellite service (FSS) allocation (notwithstanding the large number of countries that have identified the 3.4–3.6 GHz range for IMT since 2007). As well as highlighting the importance of the services satellite provides (such as in this White Paper), they also advertised reports that criticised studies commissioned by the mobile industry into the economic value of refarming the spectrum.

Another such study was released by the GSMA yesterday. It claims that using the band for IMT would generate economic benefits between 2018 and 2020 worth a total of around €400 million in the cities of London, UK and Shenzhen, China.

The issue’s importance was also highlighted in an article by the secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Fang Liu, in which she urges protection of aeronautical very small aperture terminals (VSATs) operating under the FSS service in the C-band. This focus is surprising, as ICAO’s common position only refers to the band indirectly by opposing IMT identification in (or adjacent to) bands used by FSS for aeronautical purposes – unless agreed studies show that there will be no impact on aeronautical services.

There will be many high-profile disagreements between now and 27 November; but if I were a betting man I would put my money on the C-band as the one most likely to keep WRC-15 delegates negotiating long into the night.

Toby Youell, PolicyTracker

4/11/2015