The World Administrative Radio Conference for the mobile services (MOB-87) was faced with a number of complex and diverse issues. The Conference had the task of examining and, where appropriate, revising the provisions of the Radio Regulations governing the mobile services, the mobile-satellite services and the radionavigation-satellite and radiodetermination-satellite services with a view to the horizon of the year 2000, while bearing in mind the requirements and interests of all countries, both developed or developing. Rapid advances in both terrestrial and space technologies led to the need for appropriate responses to new requirements and the modification of existing regulatory provisions. WARC MOB-87 also drew up provisions for the new frequency bands that had been allocated by WARC-79 and to be made available for the maritime mobile service. The output of the Conference was remarkable considering the volume of work achieved in the course of five weeks. The regulatory texts and the associated Resolutions, including those of a transitional character, amount to some 400 pages in the Final Acts.

One of the main items on the agenda of this Conference was to follow up the provisional or experimental measures adopted by the 1983 World Administrative Radio Conference for the mobile services (WARC MOB-83) concerning the proposed Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) developed by IMO, with which ICAO is concerned and for which the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) had carried out studies in the field of radio. In this connection, Chapter IX of the Radio Regulations, dealing with distress and safety communications, was revised in order to delete the provisions relating to frequencies and applicable to the GMDSS. A new Chapter IX dealing with distress and safety communications in the GMDSS was established containing all the provisions with a specific bearing on the GMDSS.

The provisions governing the aeronautical mobile service and the aeronautical mobile-satellite service were re-examined and modified according to requirements in the following particular fields: operator certificates, personnel of aeronautical stations and aeronautical earth stations, station operating periods, communications of aircraft stations with stations of the maritime mobile service and the maritime mobile-satellite service. The general procedure for communications in the aeronautical mobile service was completely reviewed.

The Conference accomplished a considerable task of updating the provisions governing the maritime mobile and maritime mobile-satellite services in the light of technical progress coupled with the increasing use of radiotelephony and also in the light of the fact that the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-79) allocated new HF frequencies to the maritime mobile service.