Summary

  • Asia-Pacific administrations propose adding passive and active network sharing and cross-sector infrastructure coordination to ITU Resolution 203's broadband agenda.
  • The proposal also addresses network planning, energy use, resilient high-capacity links and terrestrial/non-terrestrial integration. Governments would still decide what sharing arrangements work under national conditions.

A broadband map can draw a new line through a valley in seconds. A crew needs permission, a route and somewhere to put the cable. Asia-Pacific's addendum 21 to ITU contribution 79, posted on 18 October for the Doha plenipotentiary conference, puts that unromantic problem inside Resolution 203. It invites Member States to facilitate passive and active infrastructure sharing among network operators and to coordinate infrastructure across sectors, as appropriate to national circumstances.

The physical and operational halves matter. Passive sharing concerns the supporting asset; active sharing concerns network equipment and capacity. The proposal names both but writes no price, access right or operator obligation. Its text also asks states to encourage better network planning and operations, with quality of service and energy use in view, and to develop high-capacity connections that are reliable, resilient and affordable. There is room for terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to work together, including preparation for the evolution of IMT.

The adopted 2022 resolution already asked for cost-effective wireless deployment, affordable access and connectivity across satellite and terrestrial networks. It invited regulatory review and the exchange of good practice. Its six state-facing items did not explicitly call for passive and active sharing or cross-sector coordination. The APT draft adds those subjects and asks the Development Bureau for practical materials and toolkits, while the other two Bureaux would help countries understand IMT evolution for places still unserved.

That is a useful shift in the question. Broadband policy has long asked where a network should go. This proposal also asks who controls the infrastructure already on the way there. The answer will be made in national rules, negotiations and engineering plans, not in the conference document. The document supplies the question; the route owner still has the key.

Official sources