 Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva. I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today with Mr Mario Manovich, who is the director of the radio communication bureau here at ITU. Mario, welcome to the studio. Thank you. We're here to talk about the World Radio Communication Conference, WRC 23, which is happening in the very near future, in the 20th of November, to the 15th of December in Dubai. It's a very, very important part of ITU's business. It's a very important date in the ITU calendar. I wanted to start off by asking you, what is the significance of the World Radio Communication Conference given the rapid advances in technology that the world is going through? Well, it's a pleasure being here. Thank you. So the WRC is about revising the radio regulations, which is the international framework for the allocation of spectrum and satellite orbits. So in this time term of rapid advance of technology and services, we see that there is an increasing demand on wireless devices, that the technology is putting to our service more and more devices, more and more applications, more and more services that can be used for any kind of discipline around the world using wireless connectivity, so using spectrum and requiring satellite orbits for the ones that are via satellite. So the spectrum is a natural resource, but it's a limited one. It's a scarce resource. So when we need to identify spectrum for new services or new applications, then we need to share part of the existing spectrum that is allocated to other services. So it entails an agreement, an international agreement between all members to identify what spectrum is going to be allocated to these new services while protecting the services that are existing that are using the same spectrum. So this exercise is an exercise that is have to be done by all stakeholders being in agreement, and this is the major exercise that is being carried out at the conference. If we do this without this type of agreement, then we generate a harmful interference, which is that one service interferes into other service or one country interferes into the services of another country, which nobody wants. So in order to avoid that, we need to all agree on how we are going to use the spectrum and satellite orbits for the various services, and it becomes more and more challenging as we have more and more of these services and of these applications requesting new allocations, while the spectrum, as I said at the beginning, remains limited and remains the same as it always been. What would you say will be the key issues that would dominate discussions at WRC 23? Well, first I will say that it will be the continuous growth of the mobile communications. So the requirement for new spectrum for these new generations of mobile services, we are already at the fifth generation, which in our jargon is called IMT 2020, but we are already working on the sixth generation, IMT 2030, and then there are the needs to identify new spectrum for that. It will also, let's say, see the future of radio broadcasting, audio and video broadcasting in the ultra-high frequency band, UHF band, and how broadcasters will be able to use this band in the future, not only the broadcasters, but also this program-making and events-making that are using also part of this band for the mics and wireless mics and wireless cameras. So this is one of the hot topics of the conference. Also the revision and, let's say, improvement of the regulatory framework for geostationary satellites and non-geostationary satellites that need to be put up to speed with the advancements of the technology in these areas. Something that is very interesting to the public is what we call the air stations in motion, which are those that are using the fixed satellite service but are in moving objects like ships or trains or buses or airplanes, and we get broadband connectivity through them even if we are moving in those, let's say, vehicles. So this is another of the topics. And then I would say that last but not least is the science services that also need more frequencies for new applications and new measurements, including in particular those that deal with climate change and the Earth observation. Now climate change is exactly what I wanted to ask about next. Climate change is very high on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly this week. Will it also be on the agenda of WRC 23? Well, it will because in order to be able to measure the climate change and to be able to take, let's say, corrective if we can measure, we have to to know what is going on. And for that we have the Earth observation satellites that have been there for a while but they are increasing the number of applications that they use and the quality and definition of the images and also remote sensing. All of them use a spectrum and we need to identify a very particular spectrum that they need because of physical considerations they cannot just operate in any band. So this is a very, let's say, careful consideration at the conference. There are also other issues that will be studied at the conference like for instance in agenda item 1.2 which is identification of of new frequencies for IMT for mobile communications that in principle would have nothing to do with the climate change but there are some that consider that some of these bands if used for IMT could interfere these satellite observation systems and other remote sensing. So this is also, let's say, indirectly related to the climate change issue. So by all means it will be part of important part of the conference. Now the key outcome of the conference is the updating of the radio regulations. Who implements these regulations and how do they impact the future development of the telecommunications sector and the digital economy as a whole? Well, the radio regulations once they are approved and modified by WRC become binding for all the member states. So it's an international treaty that is binding to all member states and that's the only way to ensure that we are all going by it and then avoiding, as I said at the beginning, harmful interference between services and among, let's say, various countries using various services. So the radio regulations are enforced by the ITU at the international level and by each country at the national level. So after a conference the countries incorporate the results of the conference into their national legislation and it becomes part of their national table of frequency allocations. So the regulators, when they issue licenses for operators to provide services, they go by the radio regulations and they assign the frequencies that are already identified in the radio regulations in order to avoid this kind of harmful interference or other negative consequences. What is important is that if the conference has been successful to identify spectrum in a harmonized way for the whole world, that means for the three regions of radio communication regions, then this spectrum that is harmonized, if used by the countries that way, will minimize the cost of the terminals, the cost of the services and will allow the users to have the best service possible around the world with the minimum cost possible. Let's talk about the global impact of this conference. It's a long conference, a lot of discussions that go on there, a lot of negotiations that are happening there. In what ways can the outcomes of WRC help to drive connectivity, especially for the 2.6 billion people still offline? I would say that the results of the conference are key to bring these 2.6 billion people online. Why? Because, for instance, the non-geostationary satellites, these big constellations of satellites that are at a low height, they are a way of bridging the digital divide by bringing connectivity to rural areas, to isolated areas and remote areas, but this is not the only one. The HABS or high altitude platforms are also a way that are now the conference being considered to be converted into HIPs, which is the same concept, but with mobile communications, that means cellular communications. These are, let's say, solutions that could bring connectivity to the parts of the globe that are still unconnected. As I said before, the more we harmonize the frequencies that they use and the equipment that they use, the lower the costs will be for those services. So, this is really a key element in order to bridge the digital divide. Finally, what's your message for delegates as they prepare to converge in Dubai for the WRC 23? Well, I would tell the delegates that despite the technical discussions that we always have at these conferences and the sleepless night that we have to agree on certain agenda items, that they should keep in mind that the results of the conference will produce an impact to the world, to the industry, to the economy that goes beyond the technical discussion. So, they should keep that in mind in order to prioritize the discussion in terms of the benefit that it will bring to humanity after that. Keeping that in mind, I would call upon the tradition of the ATU of reaching consensus on the even more difficult topics and avoiding votings and these kind of, let's say, measures that are not good in terms of obtaining results that are to be owned by everybody after the conference. So, if we keep in mind the importance of what we are doing and we keep in mind the tradition of getting to a result that everybody can own and be happy about, I think that the conference will be successful. And, of course, rely on the expertise that we have around in the ATU community for all the results to be of the best quality possible. Mario Manaventra, Director of the Radio Communication Bureau of IT, it's been an absolute pleasure having you in the studio again today and look forward to catching up with you at WRC 23 in Dubai. With pleasure, absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you.