Because the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals fast approaches, the worldwide digital divide stubbornly persists. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) counts greater than 2.7 billion people worldwide who remain offline. Within the least developed countries, only 36% of individuals are online. The digital divide is just not evenly spread throughout the world. Historically marginalized communities and folks living in rural and distant locations removed from urban cores are more than likely to live without the Web. For these communities, legacy technologies and business models have didn’t deliver the connectivity they need.
Communities that lack access to reasonably priced and reliable broadband connectivity fall further and further behind in an increasingly connected world. Broadband connectivity has grow to be a prerequisite for social and economic development, education, medical and emergency services, employment, and civic participation.
Thankfully, the world has a possibility next month on the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23) to meaningfully address the pernicious digital divide. By merely agreeing to check outdated satellite regulations and developing regulatory solutions to revise them as needed, ITU Member States will help unleash essentially the most promising emerging technology for expanding global broadband access.
Advances in satellite broadband — especially Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) systems — offer incredible promise for connecting the unconnected around the globe. Latest NGSO systems will offer high-capacity, low-latency connectivity to unconnected or under-connected communities, even in distant locations where current broadband services are non-existent, inadequate, or uncompetitively priced.
NGSO satellite systems provide a wide range of applications that the trendy digital economy demands. These systems can serve communities by providing connectivity for each individual users and for enterprise users resembling schools, hospitals, or businesses. In cooperation with existing mobile operators, NGSOs can provide backhaul services between distant communities and core fiber networks. NGSO satellites can provide flexible, secure broadband to attach distant assets across land, sea and air for transportation and agricultural purposes. They may also complement existing infrastructure with redundant connectivity, which becomes essential when terrestrial networks fail — be it as a consequence of natural disasters, cyber-attacks or human error.
But outdated ITU rules thwart the advantages that NGSO systems can deliver. Regulations around equivalent power flux-density (epfd) limits within the Ka and Ku frequency bands create an enormous stumbling block for the expansion of NGSO broadband systems. This framework, which is present in Article 22 of the ITU’s Radio Regulations, limits the quantity of energy a satellite can emit when it transmits data and requires NGSO satellite operators to essentially “turn-off” other satellites. In other words, these regulations force NGSO systems to throttle back their services to supply connectivity. The ITU adopted these limits greater than 25 years ago when NGSO satellite technology was in its infancy and spectrum management looked very different.
The ostensible purpose of epfd limits is to permit NGSOs to operate without causing harmful interference to Geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) satellites. In practice, nevertheless, epfd limits increase costs for consumers, decrease available capability, and lead to inefficient use of spectrum by stopping NGSOs from activating their satellites over large geographies.
These limits impose restrictions on NGSO systems beyond what’s mandatory to guard incumbent GSO systems. In actual fact, epfd limits are the one biggest operational restriction for NGSO systems. In effect, epfd limits have evolved from a technical framework right into a protectionist barrier that inhibits competition available in the market for delivering broadband connectivity.
ITU Member States need to contemplate modern system characteristics and spectrum management techniques for efficient and equitable use of spectrum for NGSO systems. That is entirely aligned with the ITU’s goal of efficient use of shared spectrum resources.
A recent economic evaluation by former Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Dr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth found that updating epfd limits would create a profound economic impact worldwide — welfare advantages to customers starting from $10 billion to $100 billion or more. And it could most profit the billions of individuals with none web access, those that need broadband access essentially the most.
A separate engineering study showed that improving epfd limits could increase broadband capability by as much as 180%. The evaluation indicates that modernizing these limits would improve connectivity while also lowering costs for enterprises and customers alike.
Since the epfd limits are a part of the ITU Radio Regulations, they will only be modified by WRC motion. To give you the chance to check and potentially update epfd rules, Member State delegations might want to adopt a future agenda item (FAI) at WRC-23.
Agreeing to the FAI commits the ITU Member States to studying the spectrum bands where epfd limits apply and developing potential updates. Then, based on the outcomes of those studies, the ITU will make recommendations, as appropriate, for addressing epfd limits in time for the following World Radiocommunication Conference, WRC-27.
There may be growing pressure from industry and non-governmental organizations to make this occur. A brand new group called the Alliance for Satellite Broadband launched in October with the only focus of advocacy around updating epfd limits. The group includes Amazon and a group of leading think tanks all in search of to expand access to broadband connectivity by modernizing restrictive global regulations.
Amazon and SpaceX each have individually expressed their support for the FAI. Last week, the businesses also filed a joint letter asking for the FCC’s continued support on the long run agenda item on the meeting in Dubai.
There may be also growing support for an FAI amongst ITU Member States. The countries of the Americas, through the body CITEL, collectively submitted an Inter-American Proposal in support of the FAI. Countries from the Asia-Pacific and African regions have filed multi-country proposals in support as well, while other countries throughout the world have expressed their intention to support the FAI over the course of negotiations.
WRC-23 offers a likelihood to get the principles right. Epfd limits must be based on what our NGSO systems and spectrum management principles appear to be today and never what they looked like in 1997. With higher methods, we will proceed to guard GSOs from unacceptable interference while enabling more global broadband connectivity. An agreement at WRC-23 in support of a future agenda will bring us one step closer to bridging the digital divide.