The International Telecommunications Union has agreed to
global frequency spectrum for a Boeing-backed airline broadband
service and for GPS satellites.
Besides gaining global spectrum for wireless Lans that operate
in the 5-GHz spectrum band, a new satellite spectrum for airline
passenger internet service marketed by Boeing and new frequencies
for the Global Positioning System satellite navigation system were
also approved at the ITU's World Radiocommunications Conference,
which ended last Friday.
The WRC approved use of the 14.0-GHz-14.5 GHz frequency band on
a global basis for the Connexion by Boeing airline passenger
broadband internet service. Scott Carson, Connexion by Boeing
president, said the WRC action "paves the way for global
introduction of our high-speed in-flight connectivity service
beginning next year".
Scandinavian Airlines System will also offer Connexion by Boeing
on 11 of its long-range aircraft.
The US gained the new frequencies in the 1164-KHz-1215-KHz band
for a second civil signal for its next generation of GPS
satellites, according to Scott Pace, NASA's chief technologist for
space communications.
Pace said the new frequencies for GPS as well as a spectrum
allocation for the Galileo satellite navigation system backed by
the European Union turned into an "enormously political issue" at
the WRC. EU member states pushed a proposal that would have
required the two satellite navigation systems to go through a
complex co-ordination process. The WRC agreed to apply this
co-ordination to future satellite navigation systems but not GPS or
Galileo.
Bob Brewin writes for Computerworld