Sweden chaired the third meeting of CPG07, held in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on 17-20 January. This group?s mission is to oversee European preparation for the work of the 2007 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC07).
Standing out in this meeting?s debates on WRC07-related issues are the problems in obtaining a possible understanding, in researching a solution for item 1.13 (revision of all services between 4 MHz and 10 MHz), between the civil component, which recognises that broadcasting needs additional spectrum, and the military component, which sees military HF (high frequency) uses endangered.
Also noteworthy is the latent disagreement between Europe and the United States of America on the solution advocated for item 1.6 (aeronautic mobile service). Contrary to Europe, which does not anticipate that AMSS (aeronautical mobile satellite service) will need a supplementary allocation for the downlink, to complement the uplink approved at WRC03 in the 11 GHz band via the regulatory opening for the use of earth stations aboard aircraft in the band under consideration, the United States will seek to obtain at WRC07 a downlink allocation that complements the uplink identified at the last conference.
The CPG chair reported that to facilitate the WRC07 preparation work an individual directory will be set up on the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) server. It will launch the updated version of all briefs on conference agenda topics as they are compiled. A parallel directory will also store CEPT?s preliminary positions for all topics about which a respective brief has been drafted.
The United Kingdom?s representative, at the same time vice-chair of the CPG and chair of PT3, announced that he can no longer hold those posts, as changes are being made to the position he occupies in the English administration. He convinced the administrations to put forward candidates for the resulting vacancies.
About 100 representatives of CEPT-recognised administrations and operators and international organisations took part in the meeting, among them representatives of the European Commission, Eurocontrol, the Radiocommunications Department of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the APT (Asia Pacific Telecommunity) and CITEL (Inter-American Telecommunication Commission).
The CPG will next meet from 31 May to 3 June in Stralsund, Germany.
