 Welcome to WRC 19, the World Rated Communication Conference being held in Shama Sheikh in Egypt. We're very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Jennifer Manor, who is the Senior Vice President for the Echo Star Corporation. Jennifer, welcome to the studio. Thank you so much. Now let's just talk a little bit about WRC 90. Why is this event important in your calendar? I know it's not the first one that you've attended. It's actually the seventh one I've attended. So I'm very excited to be here this year because we're bringing into the 5G world. And this conference, whether it's satellite, mobile broadband, HAPS, or any other technology is really setting the stage for what's going to happen with 5G. So the countries of the world have gotten together. I think we're in a very proactive place. I think Egypt is a great place to have this meeting. We've been treated with utmost hospitality and we really appreciate it. And we're already a week and a half in getting to work. And I think we're starting to see some progress made to make sure that we can bring 5G to the world. Let's just do a bit about the Echo Star Corporation. What's the Echo Star Corporation? So we're a satellite corporation today. And we have, I'd say, two or three significant portions to us. Number one is our subsidiary, Hughes, is a broadband operator. Hughes is the largest broadband satellite operator around the world. We are an operator across the Americas in particular with about 1.4 million customers today, offering high-speed broadband of upwards of 25-3. So really a nice service, especially for people in rural and remote areas who may not have access to other technologies. We also are a significant mobile satellite service operator in Europe. We own a company called Echo Star Mobile. And we're deploying a, we have deployed actually a data network. And just a week before the conference, we acquired a new company called Sirion, which we're going to use to bring global MSS S-band globally in an NGSO system. So super excited about that. And then our subsidiary, Hughes, also is a ground infrastructure manufacturer. And we manufacture the equipment for a number of satellite operators, including OneWeb, who's bringing an NGSO for broadband globally. So a pretty exciting company to work for. And how is ITU and the work that ITU study groups in particular affect the industry and in terms of the resolutions, in terms of the studies and the recommendations? It's critical. All of our services rely on Spectrum. And making sure we have sufficient access to Spectrum, making sure that we have protected Spectrum as new services come in, and making sure we have flexibility to really evolve to meet the demands of consumers. So spending our time at the ITU is really important to the company because we want to provide the best services to people and we want everyone to be able to do that. Now lots of interesting and exciting conversations here at WRC 90, but also just the other night actually, where I attended the now event, the network of women events, which was being held here. And perhaps you could tell us a little bit about that. I'm super excited to co-chair the network of women for the WRC and I've been working very active in this group now. It's a group made up of men and women who are really working to enable women to succeed at the ITU. As you probably know, it's percentages-wise women are still fairly small here, both in participation but also in leadership positions. So we're working to change that. So one of the things that we're hoping to have out of the conference is actually a declaration supporting gender equality. And we've gotten a number of countries to sign on. We expect this to be very successful and we expect to have the support of the conference really to send a message, not just that here at the ITU, but back at home in our individual countries, we're here to enable women to develop and participate in STEM areas and ultimately be successful. And you're doing this through mentoring programs? That's one of our areas. In mentoring, we're also starting to consider what programs, other programs we can have. Are there training programs? And really just the opportunity to get together and meet one another and learn from each other. I think that's a really important part of this, especially the younger women, that moving up and having these opportunities is possible. Why do you think in the past historically that women have been very underrepresented in particular in the radio communication sector? Part of it is back home. I think there's an underrepresentation of women in STEM. And then this is, you know, I know when I started back in 1995 at my first conference, it's intimidating. And so if there aren't many people who look like you, it's hard to do that. So part of it is to build those relationships so folks have people they can talk to, they can see people who've been successful, they can learn from them and ask questions. The WRC is a very, very complex process. And if you don't have people who are comfortable asking how things work, it really can be very hard to maneuver your way through. Can I ask how many women there were with you in 1995? This is a really sad story. So in 1995, 15% of the delegates were women. So today in 2019, we're only up to 18%. So this isn't a resounding success. You know, I wish I could say, oh, it was 15 and now it was 50. So we have a long way to go to really, really improve that here. Okay. Well, it's moving on to perhaps a more optimistic tone. What about the end of this conference? Usually this conference lasts about four weeks. It's usually a resounding success because everybody has generally agreed by consensus to all the different resolutions on this and the regulations, et cetera, that are decided here. How do you see the outcomes from this conference this year? I'm very confident that we'll have a successful outcome. I think the people I've been talking to are very interested in working with one another to find solutions. It's always hard, but that's why we have four weeks and that's why it's so important that we're talking to one another and we're engaging. And I'd actually even say things like the network of women I think is something that certainly didn't exist in 1995. And it just gives you another form to network and really listening to each other and understanding where you're coming from and why you're advocating a certain position is critical to reaching yes. So I've seen a lot of that in the halls. I think that because we're in a discrete location there's also a lot of time for interaction. We had a very, very good first week with a number of receptions where people were able to meet and talk. So I'm very optimistic. I think the issues are so important. I don't think anyone wants to walk away with an unsuccessful conference. So I'm optimistic. Thank you very much for taking the time to meet and talk with us here today. Thank you so much. And hopefully we'll catch up with you again at some stage in the very near future. Thank you, it's a pleasure. Thanks Jennifer.