WRC-2000 Reaches Agreement on Galileo

Tentative agreement was reached this week at World Radiocommunication Conference 2000 on a frequency plan for the proposed Galileo radionavigation-satellite system. Galileo is a multinational European project that is intended to meet civilian sector needs for radionavigation-satellite applications, including civil aviation. It has been proposed as a supplement to GPS and the Russian GLONASS system, both designed principally for military applications. The target date for Galileo is 2008.

The tentative agreement has been accomplished at the working group and committee levels. Plenary level approval is required before it becomes a conference decision.

The agreement would expand the radionavigation-satellite allocation in the vicinity of 1.2 GHz from the existing band, 1215 to 1260 MHz, to 1164 to 1350 MHz. The bands 1164 to 1215, 1215 to 1240, 1240 to 1260, and 1260 to 1300 MHz would be for space-to-Earth and space-to-space transmissions, with varying constraints to protect the other primary services to which these bands are already allocated. The 1300 to 1350 MHz band would be for Earth-to-space transmissions, subject to neither causing harmful interference nor constraining the development of the aeronautical-radionavigation service that operates in this band.

The status of the Amateur Service, which is secondary at 1240 to 1260 and 1260 to 1300 MHz, would be unchanged. Similarly, the footnote that permits the Amateur-Satellite Service to operate in the Earth-to-space direction at 1260 to 1270 MHz also is unchanged at this time. However, the introduction into a band of new primary services always raises issues for existing secondary services, which must protect the primary services from interference.

As a part of the package, urgent studies of the appropriate limits on the Radionavigation-Satellite Service (space-to-Earth) to protect the Radionavigation and Radiolocation services from harmful interference are to be requested. Reports will be made prior to the next WRC.

WRC-2000, now in its third of four weeks, is scheduled to conclude on June 2.

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