ITU allocates new spectrum for 5G services with riders

The ITU Global Wireless Conference has allocated new spectrum for 5G, in-flight connectivity and satellite broadband, and an agreement was also reached on opening gigahertz of spectrum to support new wireless services.

The International Telecom Union's World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19), which concluded at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last week, decided to modify the international treaty that governs the use of wireless spectrum and satellite orbital positions.

The conditions approved for these allocations aligned with proposals that were approved and submitted by India and also with what was recommended by the ITU-APT foundation to the government, according to a ITU-APT statement.

The final treaty at the end of WRC-19 was signed by 135 government representatives after four weeks for hectic negotiations that established the regulatory procedures for deployment of 5G services in 26, 40, 47 and 66 GHz, procedures for earth stations on aircraft, ships and vehicles as well as spectrum for next generation of LEO constellations.

WRC-19 took place between October 28 and November 22.

The Indian delegation, led by Member Technology of the Digital Communications Commission and the Wireless Advisor to the government, Ministry of Communications, played a crucial role in reaching this path-breaking outcome.

Under the newly adopted regulatory regime, 5G handsets and infrastructure will need to protect the satellite observations of Earth by limiting their emissions in 24 GHz band to -29 dB and to -35 after 2027. Similarly, the 5G towers emissions will be limited to -33 dB and -39 after 2027.

India had proposed a more balanced limit of -35 that balanced the views of both 5G and satellite groups, it said.

The new limits approved by WRC-19 between -29 dB and -39 dB staggered over 8 years provides an innovative approach that satisfies all the interests at WRC-19 and also prescribed conditions for use of 18/28 GHz spectrum for Earth Stations in Motion (E-SIM) with suitable provisions to protect terrestrial 5G and microwave links.

Bharat Bhatia, President of ITU APT Foundation of India, who participated in this conference as a member of the Indian delegation, applauded the decision of the conference and the role played by the Indian team in brokering an agreement on this difficult issue. Both the industry and the government worked in unison to support this global agreement on 5G spectrum, Bhatia said.

ITU-APT Foundation of India (ITU-APT) is a non-profit, non-political, non-partisan industry foundation registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1960. The Foundation has been recognised as an international/regional telecommunications organisation by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

( With inputs from IANS )