State of Play

Geneva 06: Regional Radio Conference

The Regional Radio Conference 2006 (GE06) was an ITU conference that replaced parts of the Stockholm Agreement of 1961 for the European Broadcasting Area and parts of the Geneva Agreement of 1989 for the African Broadcasting Area.

These agreements were frequency plans for analogue broadcasting assignments. Digital broadcasting offers the opportunity to create more television and radio programmes more efficiently using less spectrum. This fact is central to the availability of the Digital Dividend.

GE06 focused entirely on minimising cross-border interference of digital television and not — at this stage — on the benefits of designating a significant portion of the excess spectrum for mobile broadband.

GE06 established frequency plans for analogue and digital broadcasting in Band III (174–230MHz) and Band IV/V (470–862MHz). GE06 also established 17 June 2015 as the end of the transition period for the phasing out analogue television. Countries began implementing the GE06 process from 17 June 2006, and many countries have done so.

GE06 was purely a broadcast conference and did not take into account any other service. In order to maximise the benefits of the Digital Dividend through an allocation of part of it to mobile, many countries may need to replan some of the agreements made through GE06. This activity has already been carried out throughout Europe, and the ITU provides clear guidelines as to how this should be carried out.