Gross: Location of Next WRC and Leader of U.S. Delegation Remain Unknown
Wiley's David Gross, a former top State Department official on communications, said the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027 will be critical, as WRCs usually are. But it’s unclear where the meeting will be held, with China making a strong bid to serve as host, he said. Gross spoke during a Free State Foundation webcast posted Friday and hosted by former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
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The WRC presents “a fascinating, almost unique set of challenges,” Gross said. The core of the challenge is engineering, and between WRCs “there is a tremendous amount of basic engineering work that’s done to try to figure out where the interference issues are, what the opportunities are … how do you harmonize the various uses.”
There’s also always a political component because of the economic implications of the decisions made and national security issues raised, Gross said. “Countries’ economies rely on spectrum and how it’s used and how spectrum gets allocated.” Military use of spectrum has also become an increasingly important consideration, he added.
O’Rielly noted that the two leading candidates to host the next WRC are Rwanda and China (see 2503180062).
“China loves to host these types of things and has made a very strong case” for Shanghai, Gross said. But a conference in China would come with security and communications issues “that are really quite substantial.” The host government also has the opportunity to chair the WRC, and “the chair obviously plays a critically important role in how controversial issues get resolved,” he said. Rwanda has “a great history of hosting international events,” but getting there is more difficult than many other places.
A third possibility is Geneva, Gross said. It's more expensive to hold a conference there since neutral Switzerland isn't a traditional "host country" that would pay some of the costs, he said, and the ITU has “major financial issues.” Gross said he expects a decision in June.
Most observers agree that the U.S. should select the person who will lead the U.S. delegation to the WRC earlier than it usually does, Gross said, pointing out that many countries have a permanent head of delegation, but the U.S. can't because of political considerations. The U.S. leader has to have “political relationships” with the White House and federal agencies “so that they can find … common ground,” he said: “What that means is you can’t have a permanent head, in my view, that would be as effective.”
The civil servants who support the U.S. delegation are “quasi-permanent,” and “that’s very important,” Gross said. There’s usually an attempt to name a delegation leader early in the process, and “inevitably, someone in the White House … says, ‘Not quite yet, because we need to figure out who to choose, and there’s a lot more trade-offs.'”
Gross noted that in 2022 American Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected secretary-general of the ITU, but she will be up for reelection next year, ahead of the 2027 WRC. “The hope and expectation is that she’ll be elected,” he said. Her predecessor was Chinese, and having an American lead the ITU “is critically important.” Even if the ITU is neutral, “it’s good to have your neutral, rather than somebody else’s neutral,” he said.