Satellite Industry Protected Ku Band at WRC-23: GSOA's Mauro

Satellite interests successfully headed off terrestrial mobile encroachment into the 10-15 GHz span at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, said Isabelle Mauro, Global Satellite Operators Association executive director, Thursday during a GSOA webinar. She said the industry pushed back hard at WRC-23 against identification of spectrum in that span for terrestrial mobile use, and the net result is it won't be studied for future identification for international mobile telecommunications (IMT). Mauro said there will be significant WRC-27 agenda items around satellite, including proposed aggregate interference limits. She said WRC is typically split between IMT and satellite items, but WRC-23 discussions and agenda items skewed toward satellite. Tony Robinson, Avanti Communications chief-strategy and business development, said satellite over the past 10 years has transitioned from an expensive niche technology, "the connectivity of last resort," to being more mainstream. Yet regulators in some countries "still see it as an expensive thing that can be taxed" rather than a viable connectivity solution, he said. Using satellite to help close the digital divide will require more collaboration between private and public sectors, said Jorge Rodriguez Lopez, Hispasat head-presales and product management, pointing to Spain's subsidization of satellite connectivity and terminals to provide 100 Mbps service to the public at a cost of 35 euros ($38.47) per month. Such initiatives, however, might not work in more rural developing nations, he said. In those cases, instead of basic services such as connecting individual homes, the focus might need to be more on connectivity for select use cases like education and agriculture, he said. Mauro said that given different connectivity needs and different markets of different regions, there isn't going to be a single solution. She said governments must understand satellite operators “aren’t philanthrop[ists]” and are not going to operate when there’s not a viable business case. Discussing how satellite can compete when government policies favor fiber or mobile, Mauro said the revenues that licenses and spectrum access can bring to government coffers often end up influencing how movements think. Lopez said the proliferation of mega constellations is also giving different countries a perspective that satellite is a viable route to connectivity. Supplemental coverage from space for now is more of an additive service in developed markets than a viable communications service in developing nations lacking good terrestrial coverage, Robinson said.