Commission Contemplates Opening Spectrum for DBS
Two proposed rulemakings that could open more satellite spectrum for DirecTV, EchoStar and maybe FSS operators are circulating on the FCC’s 8th floor, with one perhaps making the agenda of the next FCC meeting, FCC officials and industry sources said. Both are vintage satellite conundrums long on the FCC to-do list, sources said: the 17 GHz “reverse DBS band” and “’tweener” DBS satellites. If new Comr. McDowell moves quickly, the 17 GHz NPRM could get a vote at next week’s agenda meeting, we're told; it also could wait until July. The ’tweener rulemaking is moving more slowly, sources said.
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.
The 17 GHz NPRM follows a 2000 FCC decision allocating 400 MHz of spectrum at 17.3-17.7 GHz for satellite video broadcast. FCC and industry sources said the current NPRM contemplates service and licensing rules for video broadcast in the spectrum. The band is known as the “reverse DBS band” because it’s allocated for DBS uplinking. But DBS uplink spectrum doesn’t see as much use as DBS downlink spectrum, which is why, since the 1990s, the FCC and the ITU have contemplated using the DBS uplink band for downlinking.
The 17 GHz item is seeing action now because the ITU made the spectrum available effective April 1, 2007, DBS industry officials said. Satellite applications for the reverse DBS band dating to the 1990s are pending from DirecTV, EchoStar, Pegasus and Intelsat. The satellite applications await the FCC service and licensing rules contemplated in the rulemaking.
Bringing the 17.3-17.7 GHz spectrum into use could “nearly double” DBS spectrum, an FCC official said: “But the devil is in the details in terms of slots and spacing.” EchoStar has 6 uplink facilities and DirecTV will have 5 at the end of June, so interference is a concern, DBS industry officials said. But if reverse band orbital slots are offset carefully from uplink operations, 17.3-17.7 GHz is essentially green field spectrum, they said. 17 GHz gives DBS a chance to redo DBS slot allocations, taking into account lessons learned since the original 9 degrees DBS allocations and today’s digital world, they said. Among other things, the rulemaking raises orbital spacing questions, we're told. It also raises the question of how to allocate DBS slots, keeping in mind a 2005 U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., decision invalidating the FCC’s most recent DBS auction for running afoul of the court’s reading of the Orbit Act (CD June 22 p1), an FCC official said.
The 2nd NPRM, on circulation “some time now,” addresses just those original 9 degrees DBS spacing questions, an FCC official said. The rulemaking raises the old DBS satellite spacing question of whether DBS operators can stick satellites between existing ones, reducing satellite spacing from 9 degrees to 4.5 degrees or so. DBS officials we spoke with said they aren’t sure why the ’tweener issue -- topic of a recent flurry of ex partes -- is in the spotlight. DirecTV long has opposed 4.5 degrees spacing due to interference concerns. And while EchoStar and SES Americom once pushed 4.5 degrees, they haven’t recently.
Satellite firms across the ’tweener debate agree crucial issues must be resolved before ’tweeners can fly. In meetings last week with Chmn. Martin’s staff, DirecTV last week cited several: (1) ‘Tweeners’ potential impact on existing DBS operations and their role in limiting innovation in existing DBS slots? (2) Optimal degree of ’tweener spacing: 3 degrees, 4.5 degrees or 6 degrees? (3) How to process ’tweener authorizations -- by auction or first-come, first-served, as with fixed satellite services slots?