The World Radio Communication Conference preparatory meeting being hosted by Zimbabwe kicked off in the tourism city of Victoria Falls on Monday and is set to conclude this evening.
Graced by over 80 countries, the conference is being coordinated by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), who are the regulators of the country’s Information Communication Technology sector.
The event is an African telecommunications preparatory meeting for the main World Radio Communication Conference to be held in 2019. Discussions are underway on how African Telecommunications Union (ATU) member states can utilize the disposable radio frequency spectrum to improve next-generation communication technologies such as digital satellite television, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and many more.
Zimbabwe received over 100 delegates from various states including telecommunication services providers such as Nokia, Motorola etc. The preparatory conference has seen ATU working groups converging to share ideas and researches before the main World Radio Communication Conference to be held in 2019. For the first time the global event is set to be hosted on African soil by Egypt.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT & Cybersecurity – Dr. Engineer Sam Kundishora addressing delegates at the official opening of the WRC-19 preparatory conference in Vic Falls on Monday.
Speaking at the official opening of the conference on Monday morning, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and Cybersecurity, Dr. Engineer Sam Kundishora said “It is now a well-established fact that leveraging ICTs enables nations and regions to achieve sustainable development in all sectors of the economy. As we prepare for WRC-19 let us keep close attention to the fact that it is through wireless technologies that Africa, among other emerging regions, managed to leapfrog development towards universalizing broadband access”
The Director General of the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), Dr. Gift Machengete said “The conversations at the WRC-19 is going to be preserved about the present, in as much as it will be about providing resources to meet our future requirements, be it in mobile broadband communications, aeronautical services, maritime communications, or radio navigation systems”
The Victoria Falls preparatory meeting will end tomorrow, after four days of close engagements by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) member states present.
World Radio Communication conferences (WRC) are held every three to four years and administered by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). It is the job of WRC to review, and, if necessary, revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.
