Regulatory Aspects of THz Communications and related Activities towards WRC 2019

A pre-requisite for the global use of THz communications is the availability of spectrum. While the current version of the Radio Regulations does not include any allocation of spectrum beyond 275 GHz to any service, footnote 5.565 of the radio regulations defines the protection of passive services in these frequency bands. The use of ultra-large bandwidths of several tens of GHz for THz communications is only possible when spectrum can be shared between THz communications and the passive service. In the framework of the World Radio Conference (WRC) 2019, the corresponding sharing studies are ongoing. In this contribution, the regulatory boundary conditions, first results from sharing studies and the next steps are described.