Pushing 700 MHz for Advanced Wireless Emerging as Key U.S. WRC Strategy
Establishing 700 MHz as the key new band for advanced wireless services will be a top priority the U.S. at the 2007 WRC, U.S. WRC Ambassador Richard Russell said during a wide- ranging interview. Russell, who formally became ambassador this month, said preparations are well under way for the quadrennial conference.
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For years, the WRC has sought to identify new spectrum suitable for International Mobile Telecom-2000 (IMT-2000) use -- the ITU standard for 3G wireless communications. As in the U.S., 700 MHz is a TV broadcasting band in most of the rest of the world, and other countries are also moving to digital broadcasting, making the band available for other uses.
The U.S. focus on 700 MHz reflects the hard U.S. date for the DTV transition, adopted since the last WRC in 2003. “We think there’s a really strong case for identifying that band,” Russell said: “We've had some very good conversations with the Europeans… We feel that is the obvious place to go with IMT and if we're identifying bands, that is the band we really should be focusing on.”
Identification of the band would help equipment makers sell equipment manufactured for the U.S. market to a more global market. It also gives the U.S. an answer to the recurring question of which additional bands are best suited for IMT. “There are a whole list of bands that will be considered,” Russell said: “We think that it’s most useful to focus on 700 MHz. There are problems in virtually all the other bands.”
Another priority for the U.S. will be ensuring that all IMT falls under a single “moniker” as the WRC examines how advanced wireless will be classified. Among questions that will be asked are, “What is IMT? Do we have IMT-2000? Do we have IMT-advanced? Do we have IMT-2000 and IMT-advanced in separate buckets? Do we have something else?” Russell said. The U.S. tends to be “lumpers instead of splitters,” he said: “We like a broader definition that allows us as many new technologies as possible.”
The U.S. is also making protection of 2.5 GHz spectrum for terrestrial use a major priority at the WRC, Russell said. The band is critical for Wi-Fi in the U.S. and other unlicensed uses, but in other parts of the world it’s used for satellite systems. “We want to make sure those terrestrial services are protected,” he said: “We have put forward a proposal that creates new strict limits in terms of interference. It is an issue that obviously we are going to have to work through with the rest of the world.”
Russell said another area of focus for the U.S. will be firming up the rules so satellite companies can offer ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) services. “Domestically there’s interest in having robust capacity to have satellite communications, especially after Katrina,” he said: “That’s very much of an open issue right now. We've been discussing with other nations what makes sense, what they're comfortable with, what we would be comfortable with, and how to work through that issue.”
Russell said he has started a round of international meetings in advance of the WRC, which starts Oct.22 in Geneva. He plans to travel to countries on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Russell said he hasn’t faced any anti-U.S. sentiments on any of his trips so far. “Were we trying to bully them we might get that kind of reaction, but that’s not how we interact with these countries,” he said: “We interact with them as equals, and I have to say the governments of these countries really appreciate that.”
The U.S. delegation, which could consist of 150 or more delegates, is still being formed. Russell said the few differences remaining between the govt. and industry can be resolved in time for the WRC. “I plan on going to the WRC with a single consolidated set of U.S. positions,” he said: “There will be no issues that haven’t been agreed to before we go.”
Russell plans to keep his position as assoc. dir. of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy while he’s WRC ambassador but will give up a 2nd position with the National Economic Council. “I will be replacing 2 jobs with 2 jobs,” he said. He isn’t worried about taking on too much, he said: “There is great staff.. I don’t do it all.”