FCC STILL WORKING ON NORTHPOINT-DBS ORDER
FCC still doesn’t have target date to make Northpoint- DBS spectrum decision, spokesman said. Northpoint wants right to share DBS spectrum for terrestrial fixed wireless service, potentially providing multichannel video or other services. Chmn. Powell had promised ruling by end of 2001, but final outcome probably won’t be announced until “early in the year,” spokesman said: “We didn’t get it done, but we hope to have an answer as soon as possible.” Holdup was blamed on Commission backlog and complexity of issues involved. Industry source close to FCC told us decision is “probably weeks away.”
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.
Commission “isn’t dragging its feet” in prolonging decision, but “it’s a very complicated matter” that is taking time to sort out, Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. (SBCA) Pres. Andrew Wright said. He said Commission would “set lousy precedent” by ruling in favor of Northpoint and other terrestrial companies that wanted to use satellite spectrum for wireless broadband service: “I appreciate the fact that they are proceeding cautiously.” He again said major concern was interference, not competition. Wright said he wouldn’t object if terrestrial companies such as Northpoint moved to Cable TV Relay Service (CARS) and Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS) bands.
DBS operators EchoStar and DirecTV requested move to CARS or MMDS in FCC filings last month, saying CARS was more suitable for Northpoint-type services. “It is immediately adjacent to DBS spectrum and has the same propagation characteristics,” companies said, and “it is certainly enough” for Northpoint’s plans. Morever, it is used more sparsely than the DBS frequencies and only for nonubiquitous point-to-point or point-to-multipoint services -- mostly microwave transmission of programming to cable headends, as well as broadcast auxiliary service, they said. Moving Northpoint to CARS or MMDS spectrum would avoid disenfranchising of DBS subscribers, DBS operators said.