Standards in the field of Satellite Mobile and Personal Communications

The on-going efforts to establish systems for satellite personal communications via satellites in non-geostationary orbits cover a wide area of activities. Technology development is probably the most conspicuous one, but the regulatory issues Can be crucial for the success of the systems. One important function of standards in the field of telecommunications is to serve as a basis for regulations, which again determine the possibilities to develop services and markets. The paper presents results of studies of standardization of such systems, carried out for the European Commission by ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. The aim of the study was to investigate all aspects of standardization, and the conclusion for the first generation of these systems was not to prepare standards on the details of the interface of the handset, but to base pan-European and preferably global approval of handsets on the essential requirements, such as safety, effective use of the radio spectrum and orbital resources, and avoidance of interference.