Working out WRC-12

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A special report on the world’s most important radiofrequency regulatory conference

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The world’s most influential telecom and media policy, regulatory affairs, and compliance journal

March 2012 Volume 40 Issue 1

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The radiofrequency world has probably never seen more excitement. At the same time that Europe1 and the US2 progressed important spectrum legislation and strate-gies, policymakers were having to contend with further spectrum headaches - probably earlier than many were expecting - to cope with the continuing appetite of mobile broadband at the Word Radiocommunications Conference 2012 (WRC-12) organized by the ITU in Geneva.

The mobile spectrum appetite is a global one, most pressing in those markets that have seen an explosion in traffic (see The Need for Allocation sidebar) due to smartphone demand. Tricia Paoletta and Damon Ladson from the Wiltshire & Grannis law firm in Washington told Intermedia "Going into WRC-12, the number one priority for the US was securing a WRC-15 agenda item to allocate new spectrum for mobile broadband, including IMT, as well as to identify additional existing bands for mobile broadband, including IMT. Since the entire world is seeking additional mobile broadband, including IMT spectrum and additional identifications, the outcome was a given. The issue is how and where (within the ITU-R) to conduct sharing/compatibility studies."

A second dividend?African countries called for what amounts to a move to release more spectrum from television broadcasting bands [specifically, in Region 1 which covers both Europe and Africa]. Gerald Oberst of Hogan Lovells in Brussels told Intermedia: "Broadcasters are worried about the move towards a “second digital dividend” in the UHF spectrum, a move that seemingly was initiated by the African countries but which has been on the minds of policymakers in Europe as something coming down the line. Now it appears that allocation of mobile uses in the 700 MHz band on a co-primary basis will become reality after the next radio conference in 2015."

1 See for example Roadmap for a Wireless Europe summarizing the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme that commits the European Union to a roadmap in this area at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/radio_spectrum/eu_policy/rspp/index_en.htm.2 See, for example, the spectrum provisions of Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2012, and the Obama Administration report, The Economic Benefits of New Spectrum for Wireless Broadband.

He continued: "Broadcasters are concerned that as their spectrum is squeezed, there will be fewer “white spaces”, that is, unused spectrum between and among their assignments." This in turn could have implications for their channel offering but also beyond for other commu-nities such as the nascent white space communications industry that is seeking to develop innovative applica-tions3 and data services particularly around upcoming markets in smart city, M2M and similar markets. Mean-while, in the foreseeable future, there could be a potential impact on professional wireless users.4

3 Policy makers, whilst steering in a direction of technological neutral-ity for wireless services, have been keen to see these early stage in-novations develop especially where collective uses provide for greater efficiencies, and ideally replicate the hugely successful Wi-Fi industry. See, for example, Article 4 of the ratified Radio Spectrum Policy Programme which states "... Member States, in cooperation with the Commission, shall, where appropriate, foster the collective use of spec-trum as well as shared use of spectrum. Member States shall also foster the development of current and new technologies, for example, in cognitive radio, including those using "white spaces" at http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st16/st16226.en11.pdf4 The impact of the putative second dividend could be especially severe on this community. Program Making and Special Events (PMSE) representatives seemed especially startled by WRC-12 outcomes, and in a public response commented that PMSE wireless is now "at the limit of its possibilities" but needs to retain this spectrum. It said that PMSE services require 96MHz of white space spectrum for "daily use" on national basis, and around 270MHz to cover special events, with probably more for Olympic Games-level activities, commenting: "The professional event and content production is based on the use of free broadcast spectrum. If free broadcast spectrum no longer exists, then that would be a disaster." See http://www.apwpt.org/downloads/pressrelease30012012.pdf

Just what did the world's most important treaty summit of radiofrequency and satellites achieve?

Working out WRC-12by Stephen McClelland

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Far reaching changes

European broadcasting communities are worried. The European Broadcasting Union issued post-conference comments. "While all other relevant WRC-12 agenda items were concluded successfully for broadcasters, the full implications of this digital dividend decision, which was an unforeseen late addition to the agenda, will only become clear over the months and years ahead," pointed out EBU officials in a statement. "It's difficult to predict now the consequences of this for either existing digital broadcasting services, or future digital broadcast services," David Wood, EBU Deputy Director Technology and Development, told Intermedia.

"The WRC-12 decision may have far-reaching implications for free-to-air television in Europe," said Lieven Vermaele, EBU Director of Technology & Development, in a state-ment. Mr Vermaele continued: "A free-to-air platform is essential for Public Service Media. We trust that the ITU will look at all service demands before conclusions are drawn. The reassignment of the 700MHz band was not on the agenda for WRC-12. We're confident that the authorities within the ITU will address the appropriate-ness of this move ahead of the next conference in 2015."

"WRC-12 set a course for a second digital dividend. ITU members have decided that further spectrum currently allocated for terrestrial broadcasting will be made avail-able for mobile broadband services. It remains unclear

exactly how much spectrum will be involved and when the new arrangements will take effect in practice."

David Wood told Intermedia: "The governments of ITU Region 1, which includes Europe and Africa, have decided that, after 2015, spectrum in the band below 800MHz can be used for mobile services with equal priority to broadcasting - they are 'co-primary' users. What should be the lower limit in this co-primary band is still for discussion, but it is likely to be around 700 MHz. A part of the ITU has been asked to study issues such as limits on allowable interference to either service in this band before 2015.

He adds: "There is a lot of technical work to be done. So, what has been agreed is what might be called a poten-tial second digital dividend for Region 1, though many believe the term 'digital dividend' does not take into account that there will be losers as well as winners here." He continued: "But in some countries it may be necessary to re-arrange broadcast services out of the 700MHz band ('restacking') if they are there now. It may be necessary in some countries to change the DTT system from DVB-T to DVB-T2. It is possible that there will be costs and incon-venience involved for the TV viewing public. It is possible that there will be more limited means of broadcasting HDTV, 3DTV, or UHDTV terrestrial in the future, which may influence the popularity of terrestrial broadcasting. All these have yet to be quantified in the coming years before 2015." Other commentators were also predicting a political and economic minefield across Europe if a

WRC-12

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second dividend policy meant curtailing free-to-air broadcast options or forcing another round of retuning on the public.

The prevailing atmosphere now surrounding the entire issue seems one of uncertainty both in terms of what the picture will be, but also a possibly truncated timeline to when it will happen. Other spectrum watchers took a similar view that the pressure is on. Dr Dan Maldoom of the Dotecon consultancy, which advises on spectrum economics internationally, points out: "The surprise was

the agenda item for the next WRC to use the extended digital dividend at 700MHz for mobile in Africa and the Middle East."

He continued: "This has the great advantage for the African countries of allowing them to access equipment otherwise destined for Asia and America, reaping scale economies. However, this leads to a potential collision course with European broadcasters. It seems that the great debate whether terrestrial broadcast of TV is an effi-cient use of spectrum is not going to die anytime soon."

Under its mandate, WRC-12 also included a considerable focus on satellite issues from orbital resource efficiencies to signalling crackdowns on satellite jamming. Gerald Oberst of Hogan Lovells told Intermedia, "One surprising turnaround was the shift in the satellite sector towards a defined 90-day period in Article 11 of the Radio Regulations for bringing into use satellites in order to satisfy ITU requirements and remain in the Master Registry. The US changed its position during the conference, throwing support to the longer defined period – as opposed to the vague approach up to now. The concern will be whether this period accommodates all situations in the future and whether it will be enforced in a nondiscriminatory manner."

"An issue predicted to be the most controversial pre-WRC, AI 1.7 which looked at long term aeronautical safety requirements in the L-band used by LightSquared and Inmarsat was essentially resolved at the two week mark," says Wiltshire & Grannis' Tricia Paoletta.

The UAE promoted a WRC-15 agenda item, AI 1.10, to allocate additional MSS spectrum above 22 GHz. At the WRC, the UAE compro-mised to the range 22 GHz to 26 GHz. However, the lower part of that range is used by space science

agencies worldwide, including the US’ NASA, for the Space Research Service (SRS) and by Iridium for critical Inter-Satellite Service Links (ISL). Sharing between SRS and ISL was just agreed to at WRC-12 after many years. Observers doubt that SRS and ISL can additionally share with MSS, but instead argue that any new MSS allocations must be outside of the SRS-ISL spectrum.

In satellite signal jamming, the EBU says that numerous complaints have been lodged with the ITU about international satellite TV programmes in Persian and Arabic, carried mainly on Eutelsat and Arabsat satellites and says the interference practice, which has increased since September 2011, prevented audiences from receiving TV and radio programmes of the BBC, Radio France Internationale, Deutsche Welle, and RFE/RL, Inc.'s Radio Farda. Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), Voice of America (VOA), and the EBU added their voices to the demands for stricter anti-jamming measures.

The regulatory change, adopted by 165 member states of the WRC (out of 193 ITU members), was to Article 15.21 of the regulations, which now reads, "If an administration has information of an infringement of the Constitution, the Convention or the Radio Regulations (in particular Article 45 of the Constitution and No. 15.1 of the Radio Regulations) committed by a station under its jurisdiction, the administration shall ascertain the facts and take the necessary actions."

Mr Oberst comments: "On the one hand, the difficult Iran versus France satellite slot controversy was taken off the agenda, to be solved amongst the parties. On the other hand, the WRC-12 participants are probably proud of themselves for reaching any kind of consensus on the difficult issue of intentional jamming of satellite signals (also related to Iran, by the way), but the result is fairly inconsequential. An ad hoc group to the plenary reached a position on February 9, that “any transmission which has the intent to cause interference to stations of other administrations is an infringement of the Constitution, Convention or Radio Regulations.” This would seem to have been fairly obvious from the outset. The net result was that Radio Regulation No. 15.21 was modified to say that if an administration knows about international interference it should “take the necessary actions”. How this advances anything is far from obvious, especially if the interference is state-sponsored."

Mr Oberst continues: "Another satel-lite issue is the resolution to treat the frequency assignments and orbital positions of the former Intelsat intergovernmental organization as a “common heritage” to provide international services in developing countries. I predict this will be trou-blesome and inefficient once anyone figures out what it means. This item is Resolution COM5/11 (WRC-12) for now, until it is renumbered."

Satellites

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William Webb, CTO of Neul, an innovative white space communications technology developer told Intermedia, "Many European countries will find it very difficult to open up the 700MHz band without at best massive re-planning of TV transmission. Likely, not all adopt the plan, and many not do so until well after 2015."

EBU officials agree on the difficulties involved. "In practice I believe it's unlikely that we will see any actual reallocation of spectrum in Europe before 2018," said the EBU's Lieven Vermaele, "but European regulators and governments have a considerable challenge on their hands in deciding how to imple-ment this decision. As with all ITU resolutions, the implementation falls upon individual member states. This means that European governments will have to decide on the most appropriate path to follow according to their own national circumstances, where in many cases terrestrial broadcasting plat-forms are growing in importance."

Getting proceduralHowever, complex procedural arrangements now have to move into high gear to service the mobile broadband developments. "The first Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) for the next WRC in 2015 follows on the heels of WRC-12. Mobile broadband providers would have liked to have the issue studied in their Working Party 5D, while other services (satellite, space science, etc.) argued that such studies would be appropriate for a Joint Task Group (JTG) composed of affected Working Parties" said Wiltshire & Grannis' Tricia Paoletta and Damon Ladson. Mr Ladson is no stranger to this way of operating: he was formerly the Vice-Chair of the US delegation to WRC-2000 where IMT spectrum was first made available and was the primary US spokes-person for IMT deliberations. "The US and others advocated and prevailed at WRC-15 CPM that studies for mobile broadband including IMT be done in a Joint Task Group of a number of Study Groups. A JTG comprised of Study Groups 4,5,6 and 7 will under-take these sometime contentious studies over the next several years."

They continued: "The reality is that to successfully secure new mobile broadband spectrum at WRC-15, compatibility studies must be completed in a manner satisfactory to satellite, space services and others. Otherwise, there could be another WRC battle similar to the IMT versus C-band satellite battle that dominated WRC-07. That would not serve the inter-ests of proponents of additional mobile broadband spectrum, since disagreement at WRC-15 will lead to

WRC-12

How far are new spectrum allocations justified for the future mobile communications sector? Forecasting actual traffic growth has been a precarious business for at least a decade, but at the last WRC, the Apple iPhone had only just appeared on the market. Today, no one in the industry doubts the traffic explosion and implied spec-trum demand that has recently taken place. "An averagely used SmartPhone places a demand on spectrum that’s 24 times more than the feature phones that preceded it. Tablets place a demand on spectrum that’s about 120 times more," commented FCC Chairman Julius Gena-chowski at WRC-12.

A white paper released immediately prior to WRC-12 by the UMTS Forum, an industry group representing the mobile cellular community, argued persuasively for more spectrum to keep pace with evaluations of what would be needed, but did not specify a particular band as a primary target, instead choosing to request that identification and study should be performed for WRC-15.1 By common consent, largely because of the smartphone revolution, network traffic has beaten the most aggressive estimates that were undertaken in the early to mid-2000s - a time when most existing 3G networks were in fact significantly underutilized.

The white paper points out "The mobile data traffic in 2010 was more than 5 times greater than some of the estimates for Report ITU-R M.2072. Moreover, the data traffic being experienced by some operators in 2011 was even greater than some of the 2020 forecasts given in Report ITU-R M.2072." Given the recent impetus to cloud computing and moves towards greater broadband participation around the world as well a likely aggrega-tion of e-government and other services into cloud-like approaches, more demand still, rather than less, is increasingly likely.

The UMTS Forum says it wants to see harmonization as well as the extra spectrum. "Harmonisation of IMT frequency bands is more important than ever," says the UMTS Forum and continues: "Frequency band harmoni-sation is by far the most critical enabler for a large and diversified choice of terminal devices in the market.

1 Spectrum for future development of IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced, UMTS Forum, January 2012, http://www.umts-forum.org. The paper comments that "during WRC-07, countries and administrations recognised the need for additional IMT spectrum and identified new bands for IMT. Though significant progress has been achieved since WRC-07, the spectrum cur-rently identified for IMT networks is still far below the amount recom-mended in ITU-R Report M.2078. The identified amount of IMT spec-trum varies between 664 MHz and 947 MHz depending on the Region, when the calculated minimum spectrum demand is 1280 MHz."

The need for allocation

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delay in allocating or identifying more spectrum for their use. Through the JTG, WRC-15 CPM-1 provided a forum for all concerned parties to jointly conduct compat-ibility and sharing studies." Nevertheless, point out Ms Paoletta and Mr Ladson, "For the first time the United States entered the WRC without taking certain bands off the table in advance of studies. US Ambassador Anstrom Decker’s preferred approach was to study any band in a Joint Task Group and let the chips fall where they may. While the WRC could not concur on a JTG, CPM-1 did adopt the Task Group approach which in the long run is likely to serve all parties."

White space scenariosGiven the policy signals appearing for a second digital dividend, should the white space community5 be worried? In an interview with Intermedia, Neul's Prof William Webb acknowledged that the existing commu-nities have sizeable competing claims over the broad-casting and mobile broadband arguments, ahead perhaps of white space technologies that have yet to reach mass deployment. But he says there are various rationales to be taken and the WRC decision is not likely to have any impact for some time. "The amount of white space is typically proportional to the total amount of TV spectrum – roughly halving the TV spectrum results in half the amount of white space. So any reduction in TV frequencies will reduce white space," he confirms6.

He continues: "Most European countries have previously agreed that the band 790-862MHz would be made available for cellular usage making the default white space band 470-790MHz (320MHz). WRC-12 decided that the band 694-790MHz - the so-called “700MHz band” - should be harmonised for cellular usage by 2015 and made available in European and African countries on a voluntary basis." But, he says, that in the UK (as a common white space example), the remaining UK spectrum for TV transmissions is 256MHz if the so-called 600MHz band is released to auction. "Calculations suggest an average of around 100MHz of this is available as white space in any location," he says. "If, instead, the UK decided to adopt the WRC plan then the TV transmis-sions would be 470-694MHz – 224MHz (perhaps less 8 or 16MHz for channels reserved for radio astronomy and wireless microphones). Scaling for the drop from 256MHz to 224MHz, we might expect white space availability to fall from 100MHz to 88MHz. Such a small decrease is unlikely to make any material difference to white space usage."

5 The community remains very small compared to mobile and broad-casting interests but already has provided some unique approaches to business models. See for example http://www.weightless.org6 http://www.neul.com/blog/is-cellular-encroaching-on-white-space/2012/02/

But spectrum usage is a complex issue, and he argues that there is even a possibility of a better outcome from the white space point of view. "If 700MHz is replanned for cellular, it is likely to be on the basis of frequency division duplex (FDD) with an uplink and downlink and central guard band. It is quite likely that this guard band would be available for white space usage and would form a set of national channels on which there was no licensed use, making them “superior” white space. Not only would this add back enough channels to bring the available white space back to around 100MHz it would actually increase the quality of the spectrum available. Also, restricting the bandwidth of white space will allow more efficient antennas, increasing the efficiency of usage slightly."

Getting cognitiveIndeed, such is the interest in clever future technolo-gies now being developed, the Geneva events gave a lot of attention to them in spite of the potential digital dividend threat. "The Radiocommunication Assembly and the WRC-12 issued positions in favour of more study on cognitive radio (in Resolution ITU-R 58 and Recom-mendation COM 6/1, respectively), which can translate among other matters into techniques for using those white spaces more efficiently," says Hogan Lovells' Gerald Oberst. "We can expect a lot of debate on the intersec-tion of broadcasting spectrum and wireless data in the coming years especially as cognitive radio and collective use is a big item on the recently-approved European Radio Spectrum Policy Programme."

It may be a complex road. Wiltshire & Grannis' Tricia Paoletta comments, "For my own clients, the insistence by the Russians on having some outcome at WRC on cognitive radio, despite being completely isolated, was frustrating. Given that the Radiocommunication Assembly had adopted a Resolution on further studies on cognitive radio just before the WRC began, and that the leading commercial technology for sharing between systems – Super Wi-Fi in TV white spaces – has been deployed, additional outcomes at the WRC level were not warranted. Yet the Russians continued their press, week after week, finally agreeing to a WRC Recommendation that in effect merely ratifies the ITU-R Resolution." Ms Paoletta points out however that winners from WRC-12 are likely to be the mobile broadband players, even if the worldwide hunt for broadband spectrum remains a frustration that is not going to disappear in the foresee-able future.

Stephen McClelland is Editor in Chief of Intermedia. He can be contacted on [email protected]

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WRC-12

SPECTRUM FOR IMT

In addition to the use of the 790-862 MHz in Regions 1 and 3, WRC-12 considered further spectrum allocations to the mobile service, in the frequency band 694 – 790 MHz. This issue has been placed on the WRC-15 Agenda together with the need to consider additional spectrum allocations for the mobile service.

SPECTRUM/ORBIT RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

In addition to the clarification of the notion of bringing into use of satellite network frequency assignments (satellite deployed and maintained at the notified orbital position for a continuous period of ninety days), WRC-12 also mandated the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau to initiate enquiries to administrations to provide informa-tion on the movement of satellites and improve due diligence information. WRC-12 improved the satellite coordination by reducing the coordina-tion arc in parts of the most congested spectrum and agreed to look into the possibility of further reductions.

DISASTER MITIGATION AND RELIEF

With reference to emergency telecommunica-tions, WRC-12 addressed the application of IMT and intelligent transport systems (ITS) to support or supplement advanced public protection and disaster relief applications. WRC-12 instructed ITU-R to continue studying relevant aspects of radiocommunications and ICT and encouraged administrations to consider using identified frequency bands for the purposes of achieving regionally harmonized frequency bands or ranges for advanced public protection and disaster relief solutions.

EARTH OBSERVATION

WRC-12 focused on “The importance of Earth observation radiocommunication applications” in collecting and exchanging Earth observa-tion data to maintain and improve the accuracy of weather forecasts. The Conference urged administrations to protect the Earth observation systems in the related frequency bands.

Meteorological-satellite

Non-geostationary satellites are an important part of the space-based Global Observing System and WRC-12 allocated additional spec-trum to the meteorological-satellite service.

Satellite remote passive sensing

WRC-12 updated spectrum use aimed at the future of Earth observation applications for passive sensing on meteorological and environ-mental satellites.

Oceanographic radar

WRC-12 adopted the relevant protection levels for interference caused by oceanographic radars.

MARITIME SERVICES

Maritime communication requirements for safety

WRC-12 addressed maritime communication requirements to support safety systems for ships and port operations. The conference included provisions in the Radio Regulations to improve satellite detection of automatic information systems using VHF channels.

VHF maritime mobile band

The conference also considered the use of new technologies in the maritime service needed to the “Table of transmitting frequencies in the VHF maritime mobile band”, which defines the channel numbering for maritime VHF communi-cations based on 25 kHz channel spacing as well as where digital technologies could be deployed.

AERONAUTICAL SERVICES

WRC-12 decided that necessary spectrum would be

available for the introduction of applications and

concepts in air traffic management that can support

data links carrying safety-critical aviation informa-

tion. These systems will enhance aeronautical

communications capability and – in conjunction

with more precise navigational capabilities – allow

flight routing to be more efficient, resulting in

fewer delays, shorter flight times on average, lower

fuel costs and reduced CO² emissions. ITU-R will

continue to study any compatibility issues between

the broadcasting service and aeronautical mobile

(route) service in the band 108–117.975 MHz.

Aviation safety

The growth in the aviation industry calls for expanded capacity of over-the-horizon mobile communication links. Notifying administra-tions of mobile-satellite service networks shall accommodate the spectrum needed for distress, urgency and safety communications of the global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS) and for the aeronautical mobile-satel-lite (route) service communications.

Aeronautical mobile (route) service

Aeronautical mobile (route) service systems are critical for various air traffic and flight safety communications. Some of the communication systems, such as traffic information, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, and flight information provide easily accessible air traffic information to multiple air traffic managers at the same time, allowing for more efficient use of airspace. The allocation of the frequency band 960−1164 MHz to the aeronautical mobile (route) service is intended to support the introduction of data-intensive applications in air traffic management.

Protecting other primary services in 37−38 GHz band

A number of countries are deploying space research service earth station receivers in the band 37−38 GHz to support manned near-Earth missions and deep-space missions. WRC-12 decided to exclude the aeronautical compo-nent of this mobile service allocation to ensure proper protection of existing and planned space research and mobile services.

Aerospace surveillance

WRC-12 addressed the lack of spectrum avail-able for aerospace surveillance and tracking the launch and manoeuvring of spacecraft and provided an additional allocation in the frequency band 154−156 MHz to the radioloca-tion service in some countries.

WRC-12 in brief

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