Geneva hosted last 13-15 February the 15th meeting of the Radiocommunication Advisory Group (RAG) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), chaired by J.B. Yao Kouakou of the Ivory Coast and attended by nearly 150 participants.
The meeting saw examination of decisions from the 2007 Council session that affect the radiocommunication sector (ITU-R), as well as those from the Radiocommunication Assembly and the World Radiocommunication Conference.
Specifically regarding the Assembly, the creation of 35 new resolutions was studied, along with the reorganisation of the ITU study groups, including the creation of a new study group (SG), SG 5, to focus on terrestrial services, and the modification of SG 4 (satellite services). Also, the chairs and deputy chairs of the study groups, Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM), Vocabulary Co-ordination Committee, Special Committee and the RAG itself were nominated.
The operational plan’s implementation in 2007 was also covered. The need to define key performance indicators was revealed. For this reason a group was set up with this task, headed by Abu Hassan Ismail of Malaysia.
The participants also studied issues concerning the study groups’ framework and their working methods. Regarding the framework, and in order to ensure compliance with ITU-R Resolution 1-5, it was decided that the chairs of SGs 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 should draw up a document containing a detailed explanation of their structure.
The group was also informed about the start of preparations for the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), scheduled for 2011, with the first CPM session held last 19 November. As done for the standardisation sector, Japan presented a proposal suggesting that ITU-R recommendations should be made available free of charge on the ITU website. But various countries stressed that there were major differences between the two sectors. It was thus decided to conduct a study assessing the consequences of said measure, for subsequent decision.
The next RAG meeting is scheduled for February 2009.
