ITSO Wants FCC to Condition Intelsat’s Licenses
Intelsat users want the FCC to act on its request that the original Intelsat licenses be changed to reflect its obligations to maintain lifeline connectivity to developing countries. The FCC said the request by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization remains pending.
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The 148 ITSO member countries, many of them developing nations, fear they could lose access to satellite services Intelsat offers if it can’t survive its accumulating debt. The countries also wonder why the commission is proceeding with another Intelsat licensing action before addressing the ITSO request, even after the State Department told the commission in March that the “foreign policy interests of the United States… would be best served by an FCC decision.”
Pressing its case, ITSO has gone to FCC staff, as well as members of Congress and David Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy. It’s as if the request fell into a black hole, an ITSO supporter said. ITSO’s Section 316 petition was filed July 10, 2006, a year before Intelsat said it was being acquired by a new private-equity firm, Serafina (CD June 20 p1). Comments on the Intelsat-Serafina transaction are due Oct. 19 (CD Sept 21 p12).
The ITSO saga began when it came to fear that Intelsat was taking on too much debt post-privatization. ITSO felt that were Intelsat to go bust there would be no way to enforce its public interest obligations. If so, there was no requirement that any subsequent user of the Intelsat “common heritage” orbital slots serve ITSO members. The common heritage slots are those Intelsat had when privatized in 2001.
ITSO raised similar concerns when Intelsat acquired PanAmSat. The FCC dismissed ITSO’s claims when it approved the Intelsat-PanAmSat merger, but FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein both urged ITSO to file under Section 316 (CD June 21/06 p14). In the PanAmSat order, the FCC said it would consider a Section 316 petition by ITSO “if advised by the U.S. Department of State… the commission accords the executive branch deference on matters of law enforcement, national security, foreign policy and trade policy.”
Intelsat has fought the move to amend its licenses, telling the FCC last year that to do so would be giving in to “ITSO’s attempt to usurp the commission’s licensing role in the context of a hypothetical bankruptcy proceeding.” After the State Department said conditioning the licenses would fulfill U.S. foreign policy obligations, Intelsat said in its 2006 annual report that ITSO’s request “will not have a material impact on our results of operations.” Intelsat declined to comment further.