FCC CANCELS PANAMSAT AND MORNING STAR KA-BAND SLOTS
FCC upheld decisions to cancel Ka-band licenses of PanAmSat and Morning Star (CD June 28 p11) Fri. in decision that could open door for other 2nd round applicants to receive valuable spectrum slots for service. Each company had licenses suspended earlier for failing to meet Commission milestones. VisionStar also was denied request to toll remaining milestones for its satellite system and FCC denied Loral petition to extend construction completion and launch milestones. NetSat and GE Americom received waiver of milestones to complete construction and launch satellites. However, FCC didn’t act on requests by NetSat and VisionStar to transfer control to EMS and EchoStar, respectively. Both cases are pending. Commission denied Loral Orion further milestones after taking over licenses formerly owned by VisionStar. Meanwhile, in separate ruling, Commission streamlined licenses of C-Band Small Earth terminals in effort to advance services to rural and remote areas.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
NetSat received 6-month extension to complete construction by Aug. 2003 and launch Ka-band satellites by Sept. 2003. GE Americom must finish construction of its first satellite by April 2002, remaining satellites by Oct. 2004. First satellite must be launched and operational by May 2002, others Nov. 2004. FCC said Loral’s request to delay construction and launch of satellites wouldn’t be justified because of “scarce orbital resources” that are sought by others.
Decisions on Ka-band licenses were first step in process that would allow Commission to allocate spectrum that has become increasingly scarce for satellite broadband and advanced services, industry officials said. In first processing round, FCC authorized 13 Ka-band systems, but there’s surplus of 2nd round applicants. CAI Wireless, DirectCom, Motorola, Pegasus and TRW are among companies vying for licenses in that round. FCC is being pushed to act because U.S. may lose priority rights if operational satellites aren’t deployed into 50 orbital slots, including 20 prime Conus slots licensed to 12 companies in May 1997. Together Hughes (20) and PanAmSat (2) received 22 of slots (CD July 31 p2). New applicants such as Pegasus are hoping order is signal that FCC finally is beginning to take hard line on warehousing and milestones.
New C-band rules were result of petitions filed by OnSat Network Communications. Commission said order would provide “much-needed relief” in implementation of satellite networks using small aperture antenna terminals for broadband, data and other satellite telecom services. “They also balance the requirements of terrestrial and satellite systems that extensively share this spectrum,” FCC said.
Commission order amends Part 25 of rules to permit, with prior coordination, licensing of limited class of small aperture terminal earth station networks in C-band (CSAT) under single authorization. That option is available only to operators whose applications identified no more than 3 discrete geostationary satellites to be accessed and maximum of 20 MHz of spectrum in each direction for each of satellites to be accessed. Procedures also require CSAT applicant to complete frequency coordination for each individual earth station antenna, but will allow license for system of coordinated technically identical earth stations with simplified reporting to FCC.