 Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva, where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today. I'm going to introduce to Maria Manevic, who is the Director of the Radio Communication Bureau for International Southern Communication Union, ITU. Maria, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. Now, obviously we're going to be talking about the World Radio Communication Conference. It's coming up held every four years. It's taking place this year in Shamar Sheikh in Egypt from the 28th of October till the 22nd of November. I wanted to ask you, what is the significance of this important conference this year? Well, as you know, the World Radio Communication Conference is the most important conference of the radio communication sector, and it reviews and revises an international treaty that is called the Radio Regulations, that it's been in place for 113 years already. This treaty governs the use of the radio frequency spectrum and the satellite orbits around the world. So it's an international regulatory framework, if you want, for all the radio communications around the world. So all the countries are governed by this treaty. It is binding to all of them. So this revision that occurs every four years allows us to introduce new services and allocate them frequency bands while protecting the existing services. There is a delicate balance to be made in order to allow innovation and new technologies, and at the same time protect the investments that have been done in the old technology. So that's why it's so delicate this conference and so important for the sector and for the industry. And what are going to be the key agenda items on the table? Well, there are many aspects that are going to be studied and decided upon, but if you want, the main ones are the new identification of frequency bands for 5G, which is the new mobile technology that is going to be in place as of next year. When the standard is approved, we call the standards IMT 2020. And so new frequency bands in the millimeter bands, that means high frequency bands are going to be identified in the conference, that this will allow us to use this new technology as of next year in the high bands. But there are also other important topics like HAPS, which is High Altitude Platforms, which is a new technology that promises to bring more connectivity and more affordable connectivity to rural areas by providing back-holding services from rural communities to the urban areas. There is also non-geostationary satellites, which is the new generation of these huge networks of low orbit satellites that will also revolutionize the broadband connectivity with, let's say, more speed, more capacity, and they promise lower prices. So there are a lot of topics that are in the agenda that are of importance to the people and to the industry. Of course, there are also the traditional satellite services that are going to be examined and the new frequencies identified for different services, also the scientific services that are important, the Earth's exploration and the meteorological services. So a variety of services are going to be looked upon that are of interest for the sector. Now you mentioned that this is a key event in BR's calendar, the Radio Communication Bureau's calendar, Radio Communication Sectors' calendar. It's also a key event in ITU's calendar and also it's going to have ramifications for ICTs as a whole. I just wanted to ask you how will the Radio Communication Conference affect the future revolution of information and communication technologies and could it have a financial impact on the global telecommunication industry as a whole? Absolutely. The decision-taking at the conference impact the industry in the future because they will allow for the production of the equipment and the terminals in the bands that are identified by the conference and for the services that are identified by the conference. So the whole industry depends, even the mobile industry at most, depends on the result of the industry to see what are the new services that are going to be provided in which frequency bands, what are the terminals that are going to be produced, what are the equipment that are going to be produced. The most important aspects for the industry is the frequencies that we are able to harmonize during the conference. If we harmonize frequencies for the use of the various services, but not only for the mobile services, then you will have economies of scale because you produce the same equipment and the same terminals for everybody around the world. So when you buy your mobile phone, you buy from any manufacturer for any market because you can use it anywhere. If you have different standards for different countries or different frequencies for different countries, then you start with the market segmentation that makes not only the terminals more expensive, the equipment more expensive, and the services more expensive. So we don't want that. So the industry wants harmonization and the consumer wants harmonization. And this particular conference will have impact in the industry as well, not only from the mobile or the radio communication type of industry, but other verticals because the 5G technology will allow other verticals of the industry to benefit from this technology. So agriculture and industrial production, transportation, they are all looking into 5G technology in order to make their own, let's say, systems more efficient and they will depend on the results of the conference for their own development. And I mean you've mentioned a fair few aspects to this, but how will these developments affect our lives, particularly in meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs? Well, radio communication services are governing our lives if you want because everything we do is based today on this technology. So we use our phone for everything or our laptops or our terminals. All the applications that we use for every aspect of our life is run through these services. So it's not only the way we communicate, it's the way we interact with the rest of the world that is affected. So in particular the SDGs, which is what we measure as the progress of the world towards bringing more quality of life to all these inhabitants, is going to be impacted by this. Although the 17 development goals are not really related to, or let's say radio communications is not one of them, it has been recognized that telecommunications and radio communications in particular is the driver of all of them. So you need radio communications in order for them to be achieved. So we are at the basis of this pyramid that hopefully will build a better world for everybody. And not only for the, let's say, human beings, but also for the life under the seas and on land, for the protection of the planet, for the Earth observation, as I mentioned, and the theological forecast, for the sensing of the Earth in various, let's say, aspects, and try to take care of our planet as well as the life on it. Marie Vanuetsch, thank you very much for joining us in the studio today and hopefully we'll catch up with you again soon in Chamois, I guess. Absolutely, and I hope to see many people coming there for a very successful conference. Thank you very much.