The 43rd meeting of project team 44 (PT44) on satellite communications of the working group on Frequency Management (WG FM) took place last 17-19 July at Château de Betzdorf, Luxembourg, chaired by France. The session counted 23 participants, encompassing nine administrations and various industry representatives, namely DJCSL, Eutelsat, Hispasat, JSC (Russian Space Systems), Inmarsat, Intelsat, Roscomos, SES, Thales Alenia Space and ViaSat, as well as the European Communications Office (ECO).
Various issues were covered, with the following agenda points standing out:
- Earth stations in motion (ESIM) operating in the Ku band with non-geostationary satellite systems (FM44_28);
- ‘terrestrial’ Earth stations in motion operating in the Ku band with geostationary satellites (FM44_31);
- compatibility of 12.75-13.25 GHz uplinks of earth stations (fixed or in motion) with fixed service (still with no working item assigned to FM44);
- satellite solutions for 5G (FM44_32).
Regarding the first point, the draft ECC report on regulatory questions associated to use of ESIMs operating in the Ku band with non-geostationary satellites was discussed and revised.
Regarding the second point, mention was only made that a working item had been initiated in Spectrum Engineering project team 40 (SE40) to study questions involving sharing of terrestrial earth stations in motion operating in the Ku band with geostationary satellites. This study was done in close collaboration with SE19.
Also discussed was the question of sharing the 12.75-13.25 GHz band by earth stations (fixed or in motion) and fixed service, based on the contribution received from SE40, resulting in the production of a contribution for that group on the respective topic.
Finally, the draft ECC report on satellite solutions for 5G, based on various contributions received from industry (two from SES, one from OneWeb, one from ViaSat and one from Avanti), was discussed and revised.
The 44th meeting of PT44 is scheduled for this coming 7-9 November.
