 Welcome to the World Ready Communication Conference 2023 WRC 23 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in this afternoon in the studio by Mr. Muhammad El-Maghazi who is the Executive Director of International Policies for NTA in Egypt as well as being the chair of Working Group 4A here at the WRC 23. Muhammad El-Maghazi, it's great to see you. Thank you very much for joining us, my friend. Thank you. So I wanted to start off by asking you your role as chair of the Working Group I mean a lot of people might not know what Working Groups are perhaps you could explain a little bit about what the Working Groups role is within the conference and your role as chair. Thank you so much for this. Always a pleasure meeting you here. So we have like 20 plus items being discussed here among 193 countries, right? So it's big issues. We try to divide them like similar issues together. I'm mainly responsible of broadband technologies, mainly commercially known as 5G or 6G or whatever. In my group we're discussing three main items. One of them is related to the future development of cellular mobile technologies how we can secure more frequencies for that. Second thing is related to new technologies. One of them is called as HEPS. HEPS is like IMT stations in the air. That's going to be the future, my friend. It's going to be the future and we're focusing on that. Perhaps it stands for High Altitude Platform Systems, is that correct? Sometimes I wonder if you have an engineering degree. Perfect. But HEPS is more advanced type of that where you have your base station in the air. So your mobile phone in your bucket is going to connect whether to that base station or that base station. It's wonderful. It means more access to mobile connectivity anywhere anytime. How effective is the ITU multi-stakeholder approach which engages governments, regulatory authorities and industry in finding consensus on the issues that you're discussing? It's not only multi-stakeholders. I guess the ITU is the only United Nations organization in the world where you've been established for more than 100 years ago. 193 countries agreeing on everything at the last moment of the conference. It's a miracle. And let's confess that we become more expert in this. So we remember in Sharma Sheikh, we finished the conference even two days before that. Let me remind you and our audience that perhaps 30 years ago WRC would last for three months. People raise their eyebrows at four weeks now and five weeks. But there is also a big long preparation period prior to this. So the four years beforehand are actually where a lot of the work is happening. Isn't that correct? Exactly. It's like three meetings per year. But the main difference here in the ITU is the spirit of consensus. So you and me, we know that at the last day of the conference on 15th of December, we're going to agree. And that's great. It makes everything simple because we're not agreeing on simple stuff. We're agreeing on the future of wireless communication, not only for us but for our families and friends. Now I wanted to ask you as well, there's a deliberate effort to encourage more women to participate in the work of the radio communications sector from your working group experience. Is this effort bearing fruit or is it a work in progress? Well, the father of three girls, I cannot be more proud than this. I'm a chair of the IMT issues at SMG. My vice chair is a woman, wonderful woman from Algeria and she's been doing great. And here in the ITU, it's the first time that you have three committee chair, not a chairman, but a chairwoman. The CPM chair, which prepared everything for us, she was a woman. So I think we're not only talking about it, but we're doing it every day. And prior to this, the radio communication assembly, there was also a gender resolution passed. How much difference do you think that will make? Well, I think it's one also of the greatest output. It made us come to WRC more relaxed because it's a explicit statement from the ITU inter-gender equality. And again, we're not only talking about this, we're doing this in practice. So it's a big achievement from the ITU community. I'm very proud of it. Now, of course, you've been with the NTA for many years now. You're very familiar face to ITU. What's it also, is there a message that you would like to convey to both the delegates here, but also our readers and viewers at home? Well, we're always at your disposal, Max. If you remember, Sharman Sheikh, our main aim was to make you comfortable at your stay and also to ease the discussion here. So Egypt has taken an important role within this conference through its leadership, through its delegate participation. And our main is that although we claim that we sit the bar too high in WRC 19 and Sharman Sheikh, I guess we all must agree that this conference has exceeded the bar and we want it to be the most successful conference in the history of the ITU. Well, Mohamed Al-Ghazi, thank you so much for your presence both here in the studio, but also here, of course, at WRC 23. We look forward to catching up with you again very soon in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. And if you've enjoyed this interview, which I'm sure you will have, then do check out our other interviews on our YouTube channel, as well as our podcasts on our podcast channels like SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And for further information, why not visit our website at www.itu.int. Thanks for tuning in.