Brussels, 05/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Satisfied with the results achieved by Europe at the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-2000), held in Istanbul in May-June 2000 under the auspices of the United Nations, the European Commission adopted a Communication in December on the outcome of the meeting, which mainly dealt with the allocation of radio frequencies, necessary for the deployment of third generation mobile phones (UMTS) and satellite navigation (Galileo). According to the Commission, the results of this Conference were on the whole positive, in the sense that the UMTS and Galileo systems will benefit from the additional spectrum necessary for satisfactory operation in the future. Erkki Likanen, the Commissioner responsible for telecommunications, welcomed these "encouraging" results for cordless applications and hoped that the next World Radiocommunications Conference, scheduled for 2003, would have an equally good outcome.
At the Istanbul Conference, the European Union, represented by the Commission, had acted as advisor to CEPT (European Conference of Postal Telecommunications Administrations), a body comprising the EU Member States and 28 other European countries, which prepared common European proposals before negotiating their adoption with the other participants.