GVF RWG December 2012 Minutes
Joint Meeting with
GVF Mutual Recognition Arrangement Working Group
Minutes
Meeting time: Meeting Location:
Thursday By Telephone:
13 December 2012 09.00 – 10.00 AM
(Washington DC time)
Meeting agenda sent: Prepared by:
11 December 2012 Bruce Olcott
Acting Chairman, GVF RWG
Next meeting:
THURSDAY
January 10, 2012
9:00 – 10:00 AM
1. FCC NPRM on Satellite Regulatory Reform
It was explained that SIA has been working on very detailed comments for the better part of a year. GVF will not attempt to match the scope of SIA’s comments and will likely limit itself to a few key issues of importance to the membership. Steve Doiron and Steve Baruch led a technical discussion of the FCC’s proposals and some of the issues raised in SIA’s response that GVF is likely to comment on. GVF will push for general performance characteristics and routine processing of earth station applications to minimize regulatory burdens and emulate European’s approach which requires less licensing and only compliance with ETSE standards. GVF will also be including discussion of the FCC’s proposed automatic signal identification rules for digital signals, likely urging the Commission to refrain from limiting ATIS solutions to only the two approaches in the FCC proposal. There is a 24 December deadline for submitting comments, which GVF hopes to coordinate with SIA. GVF may also delay its submission until the reply period.
2. GVF Ka Roundtable Assembly 2012
David Hartshorn recapped GVF’s recent two day summit in London. The focus of the conference was on Ka-band and high throughput services. The presentations went into significant detail on spectrum and regulatory issues, interference mitigation and protection efforts, testing and compliance. The slides will be made available on the event website at http://www.uk-emp.co.uk/past-events-2011-12/ka-roundtable-assembly/
3. South Africa ICASA Consultation on Spectrum Allocation
Annette Purvis reported that GVF’s filing and presentation to the regulator appeared to have been well received and have had a positive impact. We will monitor the situation for further follow up and discuss this during subsequent calls.
4. GVF – Maritime White Paper & Ka-band White Paper
James Cemmell referred to a call for comments emailed out December 13. Comments are due on the January 6. The white paper in development will refer to more than just the Ka-band and will establish GVF’s position on maritime regulation generally and push for market opening. It will set out the case that satellite is important to maritime and what services and regulatory structures will foster maritime deployment of satellite services. Brief comments are sought on the Ka-band portion in particular. If you have an interest in this and would like to be added to the drafting group, please let us know.
5. C-band Spectrum Interference Global Initiative
David
Hartshorn reported that financial commitments have begun to be made by most
major satellite operators. The campaign is now active worldwide and a calendar
of speakers on these issues is being filled up. The website from 2007 has been
reestablished and is being updated: http://spectrum-security-initiative.com/.
6. International Satellite Signal Jamming
It was reported that the BBC conference established that the ITU is interested in creating a forum where stakeholders can gather to examine data arising from alleged intentional jamming incidents. The satellite industry is willing to support this effort by providing geolocation and other types of data on jamming incidents to facilitate its investigations. GVF and its Interference Protection Group continues to be involved in the development process.
7. Nigerian Satellite Licensing Rules
The Chairman explained that in 2008 GVF opposed a proposed set of satellite licensing rules. At the time it was believed that GVF’s efforts were successful and the rules were not adopted. The draft rules still appear on the regulator’s website, however, and GVF has received reports and questions about whether they are being enforced. The current regulation appears to be a licensing regime that is somewhat heavy-handed but still straightforward. Although we have questions about this, we are very reluctant to approach the regulator to ask about the status of the document. The draft rules in question are available at: http://www.ncc.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=55&Itemid=53.
10. Other Business
No other business to report.