DoT Secretary tells stakeholders to increase participation in ITU activities

ITU-APT Foundation of India hosted the 4th National Workshop on WRC preparation in New Delhi today at well attended Industry event. Shri. K Rajaraman- Secretary, DoT inaugurating the conference called upon the Industry, Industry associations, Academia, and other stakeholders to increase their participation in ITU activities as ITU’s flagship conference WRC-23 to be held in UAE next year, is expected to decide on the agenda for WRC-27, where for the first time 6G spectrum is expected to be allocated. He emphasized that having the right frequency bands and the associated studies agreed at WRC-23is a prerequisite for success of 6G by 2030. He recalled the Hon’ble Prime minister’s call to the nation to launch 6G services before the end of the decade at the recent launch of indigenous 5G test bed.

Mario Maniewicz, Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau, ITU, Geneva, who was the Chief Guest for the workshop explained the national and regional preparations of WRC-23, and the undergoing preparations by various ITU-R study groups.

ITU-APT Foundation of India (IAFI) President Bharat Bhatia, who hosted the event lauded the DOT for setting up the National Preparatory Committee for WRC-23 to lead the national preparations and spoke about the vision of IAFI through its contributions.

Bhatia also introduced Revathi, Sr. Deputy Wireless Advisor to the Government of India as India’s Candidate for the global Radio Regulations Board (RRB) at ITU management elections in October 22 at the upcoming Plenipotentiary Conference PP-22, which is expected to elect candidates for secretary general, Deputy Secretary General, directors of the three ITU sectors as well as members of the RRB. India’s nominations to the RRB comes after a gap of 8 years. He called upon all participants to lobby for the India’s candidate at PP-22.

TR Dua, Chairman, IAFI and Director General DIPA, applauded the efforts of IAFI for diligently preparing and organising a road map for WRC-23 preparations.

Session 2 of the workshop was under the moderatorship of Vikram Tiwathia, DDG COAI. This session began with a presentation by Jitendra Singh, Senior Director (Qualcomm) on India’s contributions from Agenda items 1.1 to 1.5 and RR 21.5 highlighting the key phases towards WRC-23 and a step-by-step approach for agenda items that can be finalized.

MPS Alawa, Sr. Deputy Wireless Advisor, WPC Wing elaborated on agenda item1.2 to consider the identification for IMT of the following frequency bands; 3 300-3 400 MHz (R1 & R2), 3 600-3 800 MHz (R2), and the protection of satellite in the (6425-7 025 MHz in-band & 7 025-7 125 MHz adjacent-band.

A presentation by Dr. Sendil Kumar co-chair of 5G India Forum, which focused on standard and industry initiatives that have been taken by 5GIF Working Groups, furthermore spoke on Studies and structure towards WRC-23 for IMT & IMT related to Artificial Intelligence.

Bashir Patel, Global Spectrum & Policy Regulator, ESOA presented on the importance of WRC-23 1.2 – 6 GHz C- Band Uplink Studies along with the Growth of Wi-Fi / RLANs Considerations followed with the methodology supported by respective assumptions and parameters such as polarization discrimination & interference apportionment from additional sources.

Laura Roberti of the global LEO constellation, Telesat, emphasized the importance of enabling Ka-band NGSO Earth Station in Motion (ESIM) focusing on protection of satellite services in 28 GHz.

LD. Meghwal, Sr. Deputy Wireless Advisor, DoT spoke on the development of Agenda Items during WP5D Interim meeting followed with the 2 approaches that can be taken as a way forward as the preparations for WRC-23 as these approaches were supported by USA, UAE, Korea, and mostly focuses on IMT services.

CT Bureau