6th National Preparatory Workshop for WRC-23

IAFI (ITU- APT Foundation of India) organized a two-day preparatory workshop for World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) on July 13 and 14, 2023 at Le Meridian, New Delhi. As the 6th and the concluding workshop from WRC preparations by India, IAFI provided a platform to facilitate efficient preparation of input contributions by the Indian administration.

Manish Sinha, Member (Finance), Department of Telecommunications was the Chief guest for the first day while Ms. Gunjan Dave, Member (Technology), Department of Telecommunications was the chief guest for the 2nd day. Shri Bharat Bhatia, President IAFI in his opening presentation explained the importance of WRC the way in which negotiations are carried out in the WRC meetings which run over 6 weeks with more than 4000 participants.

Shri Manish Sinha, Member Finance, DOT stressed on the importance of spectrum utilization to meet the accelerating economic growth of India. To take connectivity to every nook and corner of the country. “We are at the cusp of convergence of landline and wireless to build capacities to benefit the ultimate customer. Along with it, speed, volume and quality of service is also an important consideration and a challenge for any decision on assigning frequencies,” said Sinha. In that context, the workshop is strong platform to discuss the complexities of spectrum to reach a common proposal for WRC-23.

Ms. Gunjan Dave, Member (Technology) stressed the importance of the rollout of 5G services, and the studies needed for 6G. She said that “Spectrum Management policies and regulations require an in-depth discussion between stakeholders to come to a common understanding. ITU and APT provide a global and a regional forum for these discussions”. She encouraged all the stake holders to increase your participation in the IAFI activities.

The 6th Meeting of the Conference Preparatory Group for WRC-23 (APG-6) will be held in Brisbane, Australia, from August 14th to August 19th, 2023, and the deadline for submission of contributions to the APG-6 meeting from administrations is August 7th, 2023.

Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) has invited contributions for APG-6 meetings from administrations on various WRC-23 agenda items and issues related to RA-23, if any, to finalize the preliminary APT Common Proposals (PACPs). This will be the final APG meeting before WRC-23, which will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 20 to December 15, 2023.

WRC are held every three to four years to review, and, if necessary, revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits. Revisions are made on the basis of an agenda determined by the ITU Council, which takes into account recommendations made by previous world radiocommunication conferences. The general scope of the agenda of world radiocommunication conferences is established four to six years in advance, with the final agenda set by the ITU Council two years before the conference, with the concurrence of a majority of Member States. The IAFI workshop was planned to discuss these contributions and arrive at a consensus industry draft for submission to the Indian Administration. It focused on an overview of WRC-23 preparatory activities, and satellite services at WRC-23, along with the future agenda items for WRC-27.

The event was strongly supported by SoftBank, Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA), Hughes, OneWeb, Qualcomm, Shure and Telesat. It was attended by about 200 guests, bringing together senior government officials from DoT, TEC, ISRO, DOS, BSNL, etc, industry experts and regulators form India and other countries along with top-level executives and decision makers from industries such as Satellite Players, Space Agencies, International Spectrum Regulators, Handset/Device manufacturers, Test & Measurement Companies among others.

The first day event was flagged off with a welcome address Welcome address by Shri S P Purwar- Co-Chairman, IAF and a brief introduction to WRC-23 preparatory activities by Shri Bharat B Bhatia, President, IAFI. It was followed by talks by the Guests of Honor Mr Forhadul Parvez, Programme officer, Asia-Pacific Telecommunity and Shri Syed Tausif Abbas, Principal Advisor (Broadcasting & Cable Services), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Mr. Parvez outlining the role of APT in fostering the development of telecom services and information infrastructure along with developing regional cooperation, emphasized the importance of submitting a common, consolidated proposal to WRC-23 which will ensure that the Radiocommunication issues are properly represented.

Shri Abbas highlighted the significance of spectrum harmonization to deliver different services over the next few years. While technology has made huge advances over the years, helping better utilization of spectrum, the role of WRC proposal will be to make the best use of spectrum as Satellite and IMT gets integrated. A common proposal from the region is significant as it will decide spectrum availability for now and future needs.

The vote of thanks was given by Shri. HC Soni, Vice President Finance & Treasurer, IAFI.

The first session of the day discussed Satellite services, as in agenda item 1.15, 1.16, 1.17. This technical session dealt with GSO ESIM use in 12.75-13.25 GHz, Agenda Item 1.16 on Non-GSO ESIM use in Ka band, Agenda Item 1.17 on Sat-sat links in Ku/Ka bands discussing the key challenges, opportunities and targets for India & South Asian Countries and how they can be addressed.

The second session explored WRC-23, Agenda item 7, 1.18 and 1.1 to review satellite regulatory issues. Mr. Bharat Bhatia speaking on agenda item 1.18 noted that the Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) significantly improves the power consumption of user devices, system capacity and spectrum efficiency, especially in deep coverage.

The third session focused on 6G services, and it began with Shri Jitendra Singh- Senior Director, Government Affairs (India & South Asia), Qualcomm providing an overview of the 6G spectrum needs and the importance of timely allocation of spectrum for 6G. The session also covered the IAFI’s proposed new usage scenario for 6G for providing ubiquitous connectivity to connect the unconnected in rural and remote areas as a new requirement for the proposed 6G framework. This has been accepted going forward with IMT-2030. Given that India is going through the fastest deployment of 5G it was discussed how after finalizing the framework for 6G, the spectrum bands need to be identified to catalyze the next generation 6G research. innovation and deployment to enable India to be a front-line contributor in 6G technology and manufacturing by 2030.

The workshop had eminent speakers including Shri Preetam Meena, Engineer, WPC Wing, DoT, Mr. Sherille Ismail- Associate General Counsel, Intelsat, Dr. Laura Roberti – Director, Spectrum & Market Access, Telesat, Shri MK. Pattanaik , Sr. Deputy Wireless Advisor, WPC Wing, DoT, Mr. Peng Zhao- Vice President, Government & Policy Affairs, OneWeb, Mr. Nandan Patel- Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs, Viasat, Ms. Revathi Mannepalli – Joint Wireless Advisor, WPC Wing, DoT & Member RRB, ITU, Dr. Punit Rathod – Lead Technical Standards, Qualcomm, Mr. Shiro Fukumoto – Director, Standardization Department, SoftBank, Ms. Nada Abdelhafez – Head of Spectrum & Regulatory Affairs, MEA, Shure Incorporated, Shri Jitendra Singh- Senior Director, Government Affairs (India & South Asia), Qualcomm, Dr. Sendil Kumar Devar – Director, Standards & Spectrum, Ericsson, Shri V J Christopher- Wireless Advisor to the Government of India, Smt. Gunjan Dave- Member Technology, DoT, Prof. N K Goyal – Vice Chairman, IAFI & Chairman, Emeritus, TEMA, Shri Vikram Tiwathia – Deputy Director General, COAI, Mr. Bashir Patel – Global Spectrum & Policy Regulator, GSOA among others.

CT Bureau