December 2015 - Australia will benefit considerably from the outcomes of the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The WRC's are held every three to four years convened by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Its purpose is to
maintain the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.
As a signatory to the ITU Convention, Australia is bound by the treaty, and the ACMA will have to integrate revisions made at the WRC into domestic regulations.
The 2015 WRC held in Geneva in November was the largest and most difficult to date - 3,700 delegates were grappling with over 40 agenda items, which reflects the complexity of the modern day global radiocommunications environment.
New spectrum for mobile communication services
Among the key outcomes of interest
to Australia is that the WRC-15 followed the growing demand for spectrum for mobile broadband services and globally harmonised their use across frequency bands, notably the L-band (1427-1518 megahertz (MHz) and in the lower part of the C-band (3.4 -3.6 GHz).
Decisions in this area are marred with difficulty, and often contentious, as mobile services tend to interfere with other radiocommunication services in the same geographic and spectrum space.
However, it is clear that further demand for mobile services will have to be met, although the WRC-15 deferred a decision on additional spectrum for IMT in frequency bands below 6 gigahertz (GHz).
Hailed by ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao as a landmark decision in the development of broadband mobile on a worldwide scale, the WRC-15 also provided enhanced capacity for mobile broadband in the 694-790 MHz frequency band in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
The decision will globally harmonise the use of the frequency band, which is dubbed the 'digital dividend' freed up by the switch from analogue to digital television. Previous WRCs had already opened up the band for IMT in other regions of the world (and Australia is now included as a country in the Asia-Pacific region).
Comments by ITU representatives suggest that the move could help bridging the digital divide, as the global harmonisation of the band will allow manufactures and mobile operators to offer mobile broadband at an affordable price in currently underserved areas.
New spectrum for emergency communications and disaster relief
The WRC-15 also identified spectrum
in the 694-894 MHz frequency band to facilitate mobile broadband communications for robust and reliable mission critical emergency services in public protection and disaster relief (PPDR), such as police, fire, ambulances and disaster response teams.
As pointed out by the ACMA, the administrations will now be able to choose a subset of that frequency range so as to leverage the economies of scale for PPDR equipment.
And while the frequency range is not specifically earmarked for narrowband or broadband PPDR, the decision is expected to enhance markets for broadband PPDR equipment, which typically are 4-G technologies.
Worldwide standards for unmanned aircraft and wireless avionic systems
The meeting has opened the way for
the development of worldwide standards for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a point also of considerable interest for the Australian Department of Defence and business, although contentious in political and technical terms. For example, some regions have concerns about the use of drone aircrafts.
The WRC also identified the regulatory conditions that may be applied to such systems internationally. In addition, the WRC-15 agreed on spectrum for wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC) to allow for the heavy and expensive wiring used in aircraft to be replaced by wireless systems.
No change in the 'leap second'
The delegates did not succeed in
resolving issues that relate to the insertion of a leap second into the coordinated universal time (UTC). It is a common global practice to maintain accurate time but has implications for many industry interests, such as radiocommunications. Instead, the WRC-15 deferred the resolution of the UTC issue.
Global flight tracking for civil aviation
In the wake of the loss of several
commercial aircrafts in recent years, the WRC-15 allocated radio-frequency spectrum (1087.7-1092.3 MHz) to facilitate improved global flight tracking in civil aviation.
The frequency band has been allocated to the aeronautical mobile-satellite service (Earth-to-space) for reception by space stations of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) emissions from aircraft transmitters.
This will facilitate reporting the position of aircraft equipped with ADS-B anywhere in the world, including oceanic, polar and other remote areas.
December 2015 - The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has proposed to make it easier for operators of machine to machine (M2M) wireless communications links used in the Internet of Things (IoT)...read full story
December 2015 - The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has proposed to make it easier for operators of machine to machine (M2M) wireless communications links used in the Internet of Things (IoT).
The IoT refers to the inter-connection of many devices and objects utilising internet protocols, and it is regarded as the next stage in digital communications convergence within the wider economy.
Significant productivity benefits are also expected to be realised, with a recent McKinsey report estimating a potential global economic impact of IoT
applications totalling US$11.1 trillion per year in 2025.
The IoT has also been a topic of an occasional paper the ACMA released in November 2015. There the agency identified areas for regulatory attention that could be important for IoT developments in Australia. They include:
resource allocation such as spectrum and telephone numbers needed for communications infrastructure;
network security and integrity;
the interoperability of devices and information; and
the level of digital technical capabilities and literacy of Australian business and consumers.
According to an occasional paper by the ACMA, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the inter-connection of many devices and objects utilising internet protocols that can occur with or without the active involvement of individuals using the devices. It is the aggregation of many machine-to-machine (M2M) connections.
A more expansive definition is the Internet of Everything (IoE), which also includes big data analysis, cloud computing, and and sensors and actuators that, in combination, can efficiently run autonomous machines and intelligent systems.
These changes in the 900 megahertz, 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) and 5.8 GHz bands are to encourage innovations in the M2M and IoT spaces, by supporting a variety of applications such as data telemetry, machine data and monitoring, sensor networks, smart metering, security systems and industrial control.
Other proposed changes to current regulatory arrangements include the addition of the new frequency bands for radiodetermination transmitters used as industrial sensors; in-ground ultra-wide bandwidth transmitters used in automated parking management systems; building material analysis devices used for detection of objects in walls ceilings and floors; and to align for European arrangement for short range devices in the frequency bands 122.25-123 GHz and 244-246 GHz.
