ITU Sticks With Decision to Hold Next WRC in Shanghai
In what is seen as the final word, the ITU announced Monday that the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and Radiocommunication Assembly will take place in Shanghai from Oct. 11 to Nov. 12, 2027. U.S. interests had tried to reverse that decision (see 2507010062). More than 4,000 delegates are expected to attend the meetings, ITU said.
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“It’s final,” said HWG lawyer Tricia Paoletta, also a former chair of the FCC's WRC Advisory Committee. “The ITU consultation process has run its course.”
"WRC-27 will be a defining moment in making universal, meaningful connectivity a reality," said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. "The conference will make critical decisions about sharing spectrum and satellite orbit resources efficiently and equitably, on Earth and in space, in ways that benefit all of humanity."
It was “more wishful thinking than anything else” to hope that the WRC would be moved from China, said a former federal official. “It’s a question of how big of a problem [Chinese espionage is] going to be,” the official said, noting that government representatives have ways to communicate securely. “Some companies have pretty strict restrictions on travel to China and what you can do in China and what sort of electronics you can bring … and that’s going to be the bigger challenge.”
Holding the WRC in China also poses policy challenges, said Scott Harris, managing partner of Crest Hill Advisors. As the host, China is likely to have "more influence than otherwise,” he said in an email. The U.S. delegation “will just have to work through the security issues as well as it can.”
Harris, another previous chair of the WRC Advisory Committee, said the U.S. can “blunt” China’s advantage “by naming a head of delegation early; by reaching policy positions quickly so it can begin international advocacy; and perhaps by hosting a meeting of like-minded countries to discuss policy issues in advance of the WRC."
Joe Kane, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's director of broadband and spectrum policy, agreed that holding the WRC in China “presents a significant challenge” to the U.S. and its allies. “They will have to be even more focused and prepared to ensure their priorities don't fall to Chinese home-field advantage.”
Holding the WRC in Shanghai gives China “significant procedural influence and the ability to steer agenda-setting in ways that reflect its policy preferences,” said Kristian Stout, innovation policy director for the International Center for Law & Economics. His “core takeaway” is that U.S. representatives “need to approach the 2027 conference with a clear understanding of that dynamic and be proactive in asserting U.S. interests.” Decisions made at the WRC “will shape the next generation of satellite and space-based industries, and the U.S. cannot afford to be passive,” he added.
A WRC in China poses “logistical” concerns for the U.S., said Will Johnson, senior vice president of federal regulatory and legal affairs at Verizon, during the recent Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas. The U.S. needs to settle on its positions headed into the conference and “build allies sooner rather than later,” he said. It will be a “challenging WRC for our industry, for the U.S. government, to navigate.”
Others said the U.S. need not be overly concerned. China has held numerous meetings in Shanghai for the global radio community, emailed Tony Rutkowski, who previously served as counselor to two ITU secretaries-general. China hosted a “very large” 3rd Generation Partnership Project plenary meeting last year “that was well attended and productive,” he said. “The U.S. machinations here are just meaningless domestic posturing. It is not apparent why this would limit U.S. participation.”