SWF co-hosts event entitled "Orbital Slots and Spectrum Use in an Era of Interference"

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Secure World Foundation and IFRI, the Institut Français des Relations Internationals, recently co-hosted “Orbital Slots and Spectrum Use in an Era of Interference,” a one-day event on radiofrequency interference (RFI) in Brussels, Belgium.  

The conference examined both intentional and unintentional RFI. Jamming satellite signals is deliberate interference, and impacts on the freedoms of expression and access to information. Meanwhile, unintentional interference is the result of overlapping, uncoordinated use of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. A third panel looked at the increase in  competition in the C-Band between terrestrial telecommunication services like mobile phones and frequencies set aside for satellite telecommunications.

IFRI’s Guilheim Penent moderates a panel with Simon Spanswick (Association for International Broadcasting), Yasir Hasan (Arabsat), Michel de Rosen (Eutelsat), Yvon Henri (ITU), and Eanna O’Conghaile (Council of Europe).

Solving unintentional interference requires planning, coordination, and following the rules and regulations of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Because there is significant impact to the commercial telecommunications sector, many satellite operators have begun to work together in approaching the problem. However, intentional interference like jamming satellites raises diplomatic and political issues, and possibly requires increasing the ITU’s enforcement powers. These issues may also be discussed at an upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary conference in Busan, South Korea.

Attendees included representatives from industry, international organizations, and academia.

A follow-up to a similar event Ifri hosted in April 2013, this year’s conference was also covered by SpaceNews:

• European Commission Backs Reallocation of C-band Spectrum to Terrestrial Broadband
• Signal Interference Proposal Could Make the ITU a Watchdog with Some Teeth
• U.S. Halt to Jamming of Cuban Broadcasts Could Aid Global Effort To Fight Interference

To see the agenda, presentations, and video of this event, please visit our events page.

For more information on Radio Frequency Interference, please see our fact sheet.