The aviation community has held on to its crucial radio frequency spectrum, but is being warned the victory will be short-lived unless it develops a long-term strategy on frequency use.
The World Radio Conference (WRC) in Istanbul, Turkey, ended on 2 June without the feared reallocation of aviation frequencies to the fast-growing mobile telecommunications industry.
"It is not so much a victory as a preservation of the status quo," says Andrew Charlton, director of government and industry affairs at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). "What we have done is secured our position on the starting grid for the next WRC in 2003."
Lufthansa chairman Jurgen Weber says a coalition of aviation stakeholders "held off the challenge" at WRC 2000, but must now develop a "proactive long-term strategy" on frequency use and spectrum protection.
Pressure to reallocate frequencies now reserved exclusively for aviation use will continue, Weber says, as governments push ahead with lucrative spectrum auctions. "Aviation is using a number of frequency bands and technologies of different generations because of the need to be safe," he says. "That is a difficult position to defend."
Warning that "all we have done is win a reprieve", Weber says the avionics industry must develop broadband technology. "We need to evolve a need for less frequency spectrum."
Source: Flight International
