The stage is set for a global showdown four years in the making for access to the radio waves needed for communications in space, on Earth, and everywhere in between.
A four-week battle over how finite spectrum resources should be divvied up kicks off Nov. 20, when the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) convenes the next World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai following an intense study period that started right after WRC-19.
The quadrennial conference has for decades played host to a fierce battleground for the space industry as it seeks to fend off repeated advances for its spectrum from bandwidth-hungry terrestrial telcos, or International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) in ITU lingo.
Against the backdrop of unprecedented growth in constellations and satellite businesses, space companies face an extra threat this fall: other space companies.
“This conference is going to be less characterized by the sort of IMT versus space discussion than it’s going to be for the space-on-space violence,” a senior Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official told SpaceNews.
Some of this will play out the week before WRC in Dubai at the next Radio Assembly conference, where the ITU will discuss expanding its role as the United Nations’ spectrum enforcer into space sustainability, including managing orbital debris issues that are more concerning for companies with larger constellations.
Seeking consensus
For WRC-23, representatives of countries, companies, and other organizations will come together to debate rules intended to ensure the best use of radio waves, set out under an agenda covering a wide range of topics put forward at the end of WRC-19.
After duking it out, negotiators will likely settle for compromises over the conference’s more controversial agenda items.
Even hard-fought negotiations rarely come down to a vote as groups in the minority typically fold to consensus, WRC veterans said….
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