World Radio Conference 2007 Protects C-Band Spectrum for Satellite Industry

November 20, 2007 at 10:26 am | Posted in Space Law | Leave a comment

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty
Last week, the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) (part of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ensured that the C-Band Spectrum would be reserved for the satellite industry and protected it from terrestrial interference (hat tip: Space Politics). The WRC is where member states negotiate rules for usage of the radio frequency spectrum. Going into the conference there was a proposal to allow terrestrial International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) to use part of the C-Band spectrum, but the “WRC . . . decided against the global identification for IMT . . . in any part of the satellite C Band.” This decision, endorsed by the satellite industry in a “no change” campaign, leaves the ITU table of allocations unchanged.