Microwave atmospheric radiometry and radio, mm and sub-mm astronomy are “passive” services, i.e. not involved in any man-made transmission but only concerned with the reception of naturally occurring radio waves. The intensity of the radiation received is not subject to human control, unlike the situation for active services. All active services operate in bands occupied by natural signals of atmospheric and cosmic origin and the active service tranmissions may be powerful enough to noticeably interfere with reception of those signals by scientific services. A conflict exists for the coexistence of active and passive services in many frequency bands, which leads to a need for regulating how to share the electromagnetic spectrum. This document gives an overview of the problems of frequency sharing in the longwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum (radio to submillimetre waves).