Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: The UAE Telecommunications

Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced the nomination of the United Arab Emirates to the membership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council, for the second time in a row, in addition to the nomination of one of the TRA engineers for the membership of the Radio Regulation Board (RRB). The election for both posts will take place over the next Plenipotentiary Conference (PP10), to be held in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, from October 4th till 22nd, 2010.

The Emirati candidate to fill one of the 12 seats, which make up the RRB, is Engineer Nasser A. Bin Hammad, Senior Manager International Affairs at the TRA. Nasser Bin Hammad occupied many positions locally and internationally, where he attended and chaired several meetings at the ITU. He is also responsible for the coordination of the UAE space services and the Arab Spectrum Management Group.

At present Eng. Nasser is leading a team of technical and regulatory experts for advising the UAE government on the policy issues related to the ITU, International Radio-communications and Spectrum Management. Bin Hammad chaired Working Group 5A, which was responsible for five Agenda Items, at the last World Radio Conference (WRC-07) and is currently working as Vice Chairman of the Study Group 4 of the ITU-R on Space Services for the period 2007-2012.

H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim TRA Director General commented on Eng. Nasser’s nomination saying: “Eng. Nasser is one of the young promising leaders, prepared by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to represent the UAE in a distinguished way at the international events related to the ICT in general and radio-communication in particular.”

Given the special nature of the Board, the election of RRB is considered one of the key events that occur during the Plenipotentiary Conference. The RRB main mandate is to explain the radio-communications laws and to remove any confusion that may arise. It also provides advice to the Radio-communication Conferences and the Radio-communication Assemblies and considers appeals against decisions made by the Radio-communication Bureau regarding frequency assignments.

The RRB consists of twelve members, who perform their duties independently. The election is carried out by dividing the member states of the ITU into five geographic regions. The UAE located in region E (Asia- Australia), witnesses the strongest competition as it has seven candidates vying for three seats only, unlike the other regions which are quieter.

The TRA prepared a comprehensive electoral program to mobilize the regional and the international support for the nomination of Eng. Nasser Bin Hammad, who will be the first Emirati to occupy this position in case of success.