Washington: In the run up to this year’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) rule-making summit, global pressure is growing to turn over radio frequency spectrum now reserved for radar and satellite systems to wireless telecommunications, especially 5G — raising the risk that Pentagon access for its ever-growing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance needs will be curtailed.
The 193-nation ITU will debate changes to the rules allocating spectrum bands at its November 20 to December 15 World Radio Communications Conference (WRC-23) in Dubai. While each member country has the right to regulate RF spectrum use inside its borders — in the US, this occurs via the semi-independent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — the ITU manages usage that crosses borders to prevent interference and ensure that all nations have equal access.
And while perhaps little recognized outside of specialized circles, decisions made at WRC-23 could have enormous consequences for the Defence Department. The meeting’s outcome on use of several frequency bands could force DoD to overhaul everything from fighter jets to ground-based radars to change their receiver bandwidth — costly both in terms of money and operational impacts.
Much of the tension ultimately comes down to governments weighing the economic benefits of handing over bandwidth to commercial cell phone communications against the potential impacts on legacy users — including government agencies and militaries — of satellite-based telecom and ISR systems, as well as ground-, air-, sea- and space-based radar. It’s a fight the Pentagon has become familiar with domestically, but now playing out on an international stage.
“At DoD, you have many, many space-based assets that you rely on a day-to-day basis. And so you need to be very cognizant of your current assets and the special uses that they have, but also future spectrum needs. You have your own services, but also commercial services that you might want to enlist, and you want to make sure that you’re protecting both equities at the same time,” explained George John, an attorney at Hogan Lovells specializing in spectrum issues who will be part of the WRC-23 US delegation.
The potential for negative impacts on those equities was made clear, a handful of experts involved said, at a March 27-April 3 WRC-23 preparatory meeting in Geneva attended by national delegations from ITU member states. The US delegation, led by the State Department’s Anna Gomez, numbered some 150 government and industry representatives, including from DoD and FCC.
Jennifer Manner, a spectrum lawyer at satellite communications provider Hughes’ parent company EchoStar, summed up: “There were controversies.”
In particular, a number of nations are pushing for the ITU to reallocate what is known as mid-band spectrum, a swath of frequencies now heavily used by DoD for terrestrial and space-based radar systems for targeting and remote sensing to commercial wireless communications. This could cause DoD to face problems with interference at a minimum, or, in the worst case, to refit current equipment or simply build new systems with receivers that use different frequencies.
