The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) has not divulged reasons for cancelling the five-day 2019 World Radiocommunications Conference Preparatory Meeting, scheduled to take place in Cameroon this week.

In May the organisation issued invitations to the meeting to consider key lessons from WRC-15, proposals for mutual licence and type approval recognition. Additional items on the agenda included the ATU and ITU preparatory work plan for WRC-19, the appointment of Preparatory Group teams for WRC-19, as well as the identification of preliminary views on WRC-19 agenda issues.

Soumaila Abdoulkarim, Secretary General of the ATU, has previously stressed the importance of the first Preparatory Meeting.

"It is hoped that those who have been following through the WRC-15 discussions will be given an opportunity to attend and participate for consistency and continuity in following up issues under discussion. We also request you to encourage the participation of concerned organisations of your country in the meeting which will help to develop and harmonise proposals and views for RA-19 and WRC-19 from Africa."

Soumaila has not responded to requests for comment on the abrupt cancellation of the Preparatory Meeting.

Telecommunications industry players have also stressed the importance of the ATU meeting which was aimed at protecting the interests of the continent during the ITU's World radiocommunication conference which reviews, and, if necessary, revises the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum, among others.

Mortimer Hope, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Africa at the GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, has lamented poor participation by Africans at previous World radiocommunication conferences.

"...over the years we've had WRCs where African participation outside of governments has been very low. Governments have been well represented, but the private sector, civil society and others have just had very low participation rates or even nonexistent - especially from civil society. We are trying to sensitise people to say how important the WRC process is so that people can get involved and start planning."

The first two days of the meeting were set aside for workshops on the role of broadband in the development of a digital economy, as well as to introduce an evidenced-based approach to broadband policy, regulatory strategies, leading edge spectrum management processes, and competition policies in Africa.

The objective was to encourage debate amongst African regulators and spectrum managers about what sort of spectrum policies and competition policies might be best for Africa. The last three days were to be devoted to the agenda for WRC- 19.