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ESOA Hosts Dinner at the World Radiocommunications Conference 2007

Geneva, Switzerland, Oct 24 2007

At this year's World Radio Conference, ESOA hosted a high-level dinner to raise the profile of their C-Band concerns with Heads of ITU delegations.

Attendees:

Key attendees included:

  • Valery Timofeev, Director General of the Radiocommunications Bureau
  • Francois Rancy, Chairman of this year's WRC
  • Kavous Arasteh of Iran
  • Nabil Kisrawi of Syria
  • Joao Albernaz of Brazil
  • Jean-Baptiste Kouakou Yao from the Ivory Coast
  • Chris van Diepenbeek, Chairman of the Electronic Communications Committee of ERO & Head of the Dutch delegation
  • Heads and senior members of the following delegations to the ITU: Bermuda, China, Cyprus, Greece, India, Lesotho, South Africa, Uganda, UK.

Supporting ESOA at the dinner were:

  • Alain Retiere, Managing Director of UNOSAT (the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme)
  • Alfred Gilman, Senior ICT Consultant at UN OCHA (Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

Both represented the humanitarian community that has made a huge investment in C-Band telecommunications and relies on the ongoing availability of C-Band satellite services to fulfill its mission.

Highlights:

  • At the dinner the ESOA Chairman, Chris Protopapas, made the satellite case for C-Band to the guests, noting that the representations made were based on facts of existing and future C-Band usage, rather than any speculation. He also welcomed the representatives of the humanitarian community from the UN, noting that this was a community that used C-Band for vital non-commercial services.
  • Valery Timofeev responded noting the value of ESOA, appreciating the satellite case but also noting the need for consensus.
  • Francois Rancy, Chairman of the WRC empathised with the satellite operators but noted the pressure on the C-Band and the need to find a negotiated solution.
  • Joao Albernaz of Brazil reported on the extensive reliance in Brazil on C-Band and the real threat posed by WIMAX interference.
  • Kavous Arasteh reported that Iran relies heavily on C-Band for international communication noting there may be about 4000 links in use in Iran.
  • Nabil Kisrawi commented on similar use in Syria and spoke of his conviction that C-Band should remain solely for satellite.
  • Chris van Diepenbeek noted the lobbying going on on both sides, saying that 3 groups from both satellite and terrestrial sectors have MoU's with ECC.
  • Alfred Gilman of UN OCHA noted the adoption of C-Band as the standard by the ITU Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications for all humanitarian communications and also how the World Food Programme was chairing a co-operative effort between UN agencies to harmonise all UN C-Band VSAT networks (some 500 outstations) to a common UN standard based on C-Band.

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