The Union Position for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027

Statement by GISAD – Global Institute for Structure relevance, Anonymity and Decentralisation

GISAD supports the creation of a common Union position for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027. A single market that, through the Digital Networks Act, is establishing a Union spectrum strategy and an EU-level satellite spectrum authorisation for the first time must also negotiate globally with one voice. The conference in Shanghai, from 18 October to 12 November 2027, will revise the international treaty that governs the use of radio spectrum and satellite orbits, and its decisions will directly affect Union law and programmes, including Copernicus and IRIS2.

A negotiating position is not a strategy

A common position only becomes a strategy when it ties spectrum allocation to measurable structural criteria rather than asserted demand. The debate on the 6G candidate bands shows the problem: those who demand additional frequencies without measuring interoperability, coverage and resilience beyond the market are selling bandwidth as the future. Bandwidth is not resilience. The Union position should therefore define, for every allocation it supports, what will be measured afterwards: actual use, coexistence with incumbent services, and the degree to which services remain functional when individual systems fail.

Direct-to-device: complement, not replacement

Satellite direct-to-device connectivity must not become an alibi for neglecting terrestrial and local network structures. What arrives from orbit must be measured as a complement to decentralised infrastructure – against the yardstick of what continues to work without any single operator. GISAD calls on the Union position to fix origin and availability criteria for the selection of direct-to-device partners. A certificate that does not measure origin merely certifies dependency.

Regulation without profiling

WRC-27 will decide on the coordination of earth stations and on the identification of user devices. The Union position must draw a clear line here: technical coordination of radio use is legitimate; networked recording of users and their movements is not. Whoever verifies must itself be verifiable. Radio use must not become a movement profile.

Interoperability is not chaining

Global harmonisation of bands lowers equipment costs – but it must not lead to supply chains that depend on a few manufacturers and a few constellations. The Union position should bind spectrum harmonisation to the same criterion that the Chips Act 2.0 establishes for semiconductor supply chains: no single source. Whoever triples capacity without measuring the operator triples dependency.

GISAD – Global Institute for Structure relevance, Anonymity and Decentralisation · Registered in the EU Transparency Register, No. 244298340978-40

Sources: European Commission – Have your say: The Union Position for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027 · European Commission – Commission collects feedback to define the EU’s position for WRC-27