The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is holding a special workshop on the generation of satellite notices in Kenya and other 30 African states. The meeting, which started yesterday, will be concluded o 21 February. It is being conducted in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).
The conference is preceded by the outcomes of the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) that was held in Egypt in November 2019. Some of the outcomes included the opening of new orbital slots for broadcasting satellites, providing developing countries with the opportunity to regain access to spectrum orbit resources thanks to a priority mechanism especially set for them.
Furthermore, during the WRC-19, a stable regulatory framework was defined for non-geostationary satellite orbit (non-GSO) systems based on a milestone process enabling mega-constellations to come to fruition rapidly. According to the conference, the development will ensure that more affordable means of connectivity can be offered to citizens of all countries, including Kenya.
To this end, the Nairobi meeting, which, as mentioned, is seeing participation from the other 30 African states, is aimed at enabling the countries to acquire new satellite orbital resources in the ITU’s Broadcasting Satellite Service (BSS) Plan.
This case is one of ATU’s joint proposal to WRC-Q9 and is looking forward to compensating for the currently planned resources that have been, over an extended period, rendered unusable due to interference from other networks.
“This opportunity requires that the affected countries generate appropriate satellite notices in good time, and submit the notices to the ITU between 23 March 2020 and 21 May 2020 in the prescribed manner,” reads a statement from ATU.
The workshop is being officiated by the PS of Kenya’s ICT Ministry Esther Koimett, CA’s Director-General Mercy Wanjau, and reps from ATU.
