The 38th World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) concluded on 22 November 2019 with the signing of the Final Acts. The conference, hosted by the Government of Egypt, attracted over 3400 participants from 163 of ITU’s 193 Member States along with over 260 observers from among ITU’s 900 private Sector Members as well as members of international organizations. The deliberations at WRC-19 were steered by conference Chair Amr Badawi with assistance from six Vice-Chairmen: Mr Kyu Jin Wee (Republic of Korea), Mr Tareq Al Awadhi (United Arab Emirates), Mr Peter Zimri (South Africa), Mr Alexander Kühn (Germany), Ms Grace Koh (United States) and Mr Sergey Pastukh (Russian Federation).

WRC-19 identified additional globally harmonized (millimetre wave) frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), including IMT-2020 (otherwise known as 5G mobile), facilitating diverse usage scenarios for enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine-type communications and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications. This will unlock a host of applications facilitating Intelligent Transport Systems, creating smart cities and making communities more sustainable while allowing for effective climate action, improved health care, sustainable agricultural practices, and greater energy efficiency.

At the same time, protections were accorded to the Earth-exploration satellite service (EESS) as well as meteorological and other passive services in adjacent bands, such as the space research service (SRS) to ensure that space-based monitoring of the earth and its atmosphere remain unhindered. Satellite services supporting meteorology and climatology that aim to safeguard human life and natural resources will be protected from harmful radio-frequency interference, as will systems used by radio astronomers for deep space exploration.

Steps were also taken to ensure that radio astronomy stations would be protected from any harmful radio interference from other space stations or satellite systems in orbit.

This summary includes excerpts from the ITU Press Release dated 22 November 2019. You can view the full press release here.