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ITU Regional Frequency Coordination for Central America and Caribbean

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The activity is intended to facilitate the processes of transition from analog to Digital Television (DTT) and allocation of the Digital Dividend, taking into account  mutual compatibility among broadcasting and mobile stations in the VHF and UHF bands.

The coordination is not intended to conclude any formal agreement under the ITU, but to build informal consensus in the Central American and Caribbean regions towards the conclusion of formal agreements between the administrations involved before formal notification of the relevant frequency assignments to the ITU.

​In order to ensure that your operating assignments and planned digital television assignments are taken into account in the compatibility assessment subject to the ITU Regional Frequency Coordination Meeting on the use of the VHF band (174-216 MHz) and the UHF band (470-806 MHz), you are kindly invited to: 
  • notify all your frequency assignments in operation or intended to be brought into operation in the next three months, irrespective of the service used, in the frequency bands 174-216 MHz and 470-806 MHz for recording in the MIFR through WISFAT platform. Guidelines on notification for terrestrial services can be found at: http://1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/en/ITU-R/terrestrial/tpr/Pages/Notification.aspx 
  • suppress obsolete records, if any, from the MIFR.
  • submit all your requirements (i.e. planned digital television frequency assignments) by sending T02 electronic notices via email to BRBCD@itu.int before each compatibility iteration. In case you do not submit any requirements, the last submitted file will be used.

Before submitting your electronic notices under one or both of the above-listed categories, please make you sure you validate them using one of the following tools: 

For more details, please consult the INFO documents in the section below.

 

  • SharePoint site - Exchange of information related to the coordination process.

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Planning Tools

  • eTools - Broadcasting planning tools.

For Central America and Caribbean Region, the tool to be used is CA_compat.

CA_compat is a compatibility analysis tool, developed by the Radiocommunication Bureau, for parts of Region 2 including Central America and Caribbean countries. This tool, based on the software used at the RRC06 Conference and still in use for compatibility analyses in GE06 planning area, is intended to facilitate the planning of digital television assignments in the frequency bands 174-216 MHz and 470-698 MHz for Central American and Caribbean countries.

CA_compat is being developed gradually to take into account existing analogue and digital television assignments as well as frequency assignments to other primary services recorded in the MIFR in the above-mentioned frequency bands. It is based on the sharing and compatibility criteria of the digital frequency requirements contained in the relevant ITU-R Recommendations and Reports, mainly : Recommendations ITU-R BT.1368, ITU-R BT.2033, ITU-R BT.2036, ITU-R BT.655 and Reports ITU-R BT.2254, ITU-R BT.2383, ITU-R BT.2432.

The propagation prediction model implemented by the Bureau is using the method described in Recommendation ITU-R P.1546-5, noting that it is valid only between 1% and 50% time probability. For 90% of time (needed for planning ATSC and ISDB‑T standards), the Bureau implemented the formula described in Report ITU-R BT.2383-1 (Note 19 on page 26).

CA_compat does not use the Digital Terrain Model. However, the calculations are taking into account propagation conditions along the entire path between the transmitter and the receiver (land, sea, mixed) in accordance with the  IDWM as well as the effective antenna height, which represents the height of the transmitting antenna above terrain height averaged between distances of 3 to 15 km, in the direction of the receiving antenna (SRTM: http://1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/SRTM3/index.html ).

  • SRTM3 - Online calculations of antenna effective height using data from publicly available SRTM3 digital terrain model.

Relevant coordination meetings

4th ITU Regional Frequency Coordination Meeting on the use of the VHF band (174-216 MHz) and the UHF band (470-806 MHz), from 11 to 14 September 2018​, Belize City, Belize:

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3rd ITU Regional Frequency Coordination Meeting on the use of the VHF band (174-216 MHz) and the UHF band (470-806 MHz), from 7 to 11 May 2018​, Panama City, Panama:

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2nd ITU Regional Frequency Coordination Meeting on the use of the VHF band (174-216 MHz) and the UHF band (470-806 MHz), 28 August to 1 September 2017, Guatemala City, Guatemala:

 

​First ITU Regional Frequency Coordination Meeting on the use of the VHF band (174-216 MHz) and the UHF band (470-806 MHz), 8 to 10 March 2017, Managua, Nicaragua:

 

Information Documents

OUTCOME

Iteration results and statistics

Coordination/Planning area

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