Southern Africa: SADC Receives Global Impact Achievement Award for Its Contribution to the Recovery of Satellite Resources Impacting Broadcasting Satellite Services

9 January 2024
Southern African Development Community (Gaborone)
document

The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) has given the Southern African Development Community (SADC) an award acknowledging the outstanding contribution in the recovery of satellite resources impacting Broadcasting Satellite Services (BSS) across 31 African countries. In addition, Dr. George Ah-Thew, the SADC Senior Programme Officer for ICT at the SADC Secretariat received an ATU Award honouring his role in supporting Member States in the recovery of national BSS resources.

These awards were presented an event organised by the ATU held on the 14th December 2023 on the margins of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunications Conference 2023 (WRC-23) held from the 20th November to 15th December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

During the event, ATU celebrated the successful implementation of Resolution 559 (WRC-19) which entails a special procedure that could be applied only once by an Administration with a degraded BSS Assignment to assist them to replace their impacted BSS Assignment with a better one.

The implementation of Resolution 559 (WRC-19) marks a historic and milestone achievement in the recovery of lost satellite resources for BSS across 31 African countries, solidifying Africa's position as a key player in the global telecommunications arena. This success came after overcoming significant challenges and the Secretariat has commended SADC Member States for recovering their National satellite slot in the ITU BSS Plan, which will be protected with utmost attention.

Technical Background of the ITU BSS and FSS

The ITU BSS Plan for Region 1 and 3 was developed in 1977 with the objective to guarantee equitable access to Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum and associated satellite-orbit resources, with satellite beams covering the national territory of each Administration, based on a reservation of capacity for future use. Hence, each ITU Administration has a national satellite slot in the BSS Plan (Appendix 30/30A). A similar plan (Appendix 30B) was also created for Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) in 1988. Unfortunately, some orbital slots/frequency spectrum reserved for developing countries in the BSS and FSS Plans were degraded as a result of lack of resources for conducting proper coordination, rendering them non-implementable. The WRC-19 adopted Resolution 559 (WRC-19) which entailed a special procedure that could be applied only once by an Administration with a degraded BSS Assignment to assist them to replace their impacted BSS Assignment with a better one.

SADC Ministers responsible for ICT at their meeting held in September 2019 in Dar es Salaam, the United Republic of Tanzania urged Member States to analyse their degraded Plan assignments for BSS and FSS and to identify appropriate new filings (orbital positions and frequency channels) as per Res.559 (WRC-19) in order to replace their degraded Plan assignments. As such, the SADC Secretariat facilitated a hands-on training workshop in January 2020 in Luanda, Angola to impart critical hands-on training to SADC Member States to assist them prepare new satellite networks as per the special procedure of Res.559 (WRC-19) to replace their degraded National assignments in the BSS Plan. The SADC Secretariat also strengthen capacity of Member States on ITU Radio Regulation (RR) and Rules and Procedure (RoP) on Satellite Networks, to become more knowledgeable in protecting their national BSS assignments so they are never degrades again. A SADC Roadmap for Application of Res.559 (WRC-19) was developed to guide the region's endeavor. The ITU supported this SADC initiative with Radiocommunications Bureau (BR) Experts every year. Since the SADC Satellite Communications Workshop in January 2020, SADC Secretariat has been building capacity of Member States on satellite communications with the consistent convening of annual workshops and training sessions provided by the SADC Secretariat. ATU organized its first workshop to assist the 31 African Administrations on Res.559 (WRC-19) in February 2020, which took onboard lessons learnt from the SADC workshop held earlier that year. This was a complementary support to SADC Member States.

In February 2020, the ITU BR identified 55 Administration that had degraded National satellite slots in the BSS Plan. 45 Administrations out of the 55 eligible Administrations applied the above-mentioned Special Procedure of Res.559 (WRC-19) to replace their degraded BSS Assignment. All SADC Member States, with the exception of Angola had severe levels of degradation of their national BSS satellite slot which rendered their satellite orbital assignments ineffective for the deployment of decent quality satellite services. Part A of Res.559 (WRC-19) satellite network notices were published in the Special Sections of the BR International Frequency Information Circular (BR-IFIC) 2932 dated 27th October 2020, which contained the list of potentially affected Administrations/networks and triggered the satellite coordination process. Member States pursued satellite coordination with all concerned Administrations whose networks were identified as potentially affected. SADC Member States' Res.559 (WRC-19) Part B notices were published for inclusion in the List of Additional Uses in BR-IFIC 2993 dated 4th April 2023. The latter publication was an indication of a successful complete application of the Res.559 (WRC-19). WRC-23 agreed for these Res.559 (WRC-19) networks to replace the degraded BSS Assignments in the Plan.

ITU Radiocommunications (ITU-R) plays an essential custodian role in the management of the RF spectrum and satellite orbits, which are finite natural resources that are increasingly in demand from a large number of services such as fixed, mobile, broadcasting, amateur, space research, meteorology, and global positioning. To ensure the rational, equitable, efficient and economical use of the RF spectrum and satellite orbits, ITU organises WRCs that are held every three to four years to review, and, if necessary, revise the RR, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum, both on Earth and in space. Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agreed on revisions to the global treaty governing the use of the radio frequency spectrum, both on Earth and in space, at the close of the World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) today in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Enquiries

For enquiries about the story, contact , Dr. George Ah-Thew, Senior Programme Officer - ICT in the Directorate of Infrastructure at the SADC Secretariat email gah-thew@sadc.int

Read the original article on SADC.

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