At the kind invitation of the Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones (MTC) of Peru in cooperation with the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL), and the Comunidad Andina (CAN), the ITU organized the ITU Regional Radiocommunication Seminar 2017 for the Americas (RRS-17-Americas) in Lima, Peru, from 11 to 15 September 2017.

The Seminar gathered industry experts and stakeholders, including ITU Member States and Sector members, Associates and Academia from the Americas region, regulators, telecommunication industry and operators, and stakeholders to discuss spectrum management at national and international levels, monitoring, national regulatory plans and regulatory and market aspects of spectrum management. It ended with a renewed commitment to collaboration and capacity-building programs among all stakeholders.

"The Regional Radiocommunication Seminar in Peru marks an important step in preparing key future spectrum management decisions in the region in preparation for WRC-19," said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, referring to the next quadrennial World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in 2019.

The first two days of the seminar, which opened on 11 September in the presence of Carlos Valdez Velásquez-López, Viceministro de Comunicaciones, Peru and César Montaño Huerta, Director General, Comunidad Andina (CAN), covered the general concepts related to spectrum management as well as the procedures associated to the recording of frequency assignments for satellites and terrestrial stations in the Master International Frequency Register (MIFR) as well as the ITU-R Recommendations relating to the best practices in spectrum management. It also included a review of the modifications to the ITU Radio Regulations, and associated WRC and ITU-R Resolutions decided by the last World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) and Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-15), along with the agenda of the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) to be held in 2019 from 28 October to 22 November.

The third day of the seminar focused on Workshops to enable participants to get hands-on experience with ITU notification procedures for terrestrial stations (emphasis on broadcasting) and space stations (emphasis on earth stations), as well as with the software and electronic publications made available by the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau to the Administrations of Member States and to the ITU-R Sector Members. 

RRS-17-Americas concluded with a two-day Forum on "Transition to 5G: Present and Future in Latin America", which attracted participation from a wide range of radiocommunication stakeholders from the region.

"RRS-17 Americas will significantly contribute towards the dissemination of information and capacity-building in the Americas region and will assist the development of regional positions and contributions towards WRC-19," said François Rancy, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.

The Seminar was attended by over 70 participants from various parts of the world with 12 countries representing the Americas Region.

For further information, please visit the seminar's webpage.