Securing sustainable development in and from space
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU Secretary-General
Satellite networks are essential for improving access to information, education, health, and other vital services. At the midpoint of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, they can help put the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track.
With 2.6 billion people still offline worldwide, satellites are a critical part of our toolkit to connect the unconnected.
Innovative space-based technologies offer increasingly economical connectivity for remote and underserved people and communities, including in the least-developed countries (LDCs) where about two-thirds of the population remains offline.
Space services rely on efficient use of the radio spectrum and associated orbits. These will be major topics at our upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference, WRC‑23, whose outcomes will shape digital development for the rest of the decade and further into the future.
When over 3000 delegates from the Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) gather in Dubai towards the end of this year, they will negotiate intensively over updates to the Radio Regulations.
The regulatory procedures outlined in that unique, extensive, ITU-maintained treaty include the coordination of radio-frequency assignments and avoidance of harmful radio interference to and from space services.
This latest ITU News Magazine highlights such key topics for space services at WRC‑23.
Alongside the nuts and bolts of spectrum regulation and harmonization, we will tackle pressing questions about sustainability of the radio-frequency spectrum and associated satellite-orbit resources used by space services. In parallel, the conference gives us a prime opportunity to advance ITU’s central mission: connecting the whole world and leaving no one behind.
Download your copy of the ITU News Magazine: Satellite connectivity.
Header image credit: Adobe Stock
Photo: ITU/D. Woldu
