Dish Terrestrial Service May Get FCC Green Light Next Month
An FCC forthcoming order that would alter rules for use of mobile satellite services spectrum in the 2 GHz band may circulate in October, commission officials said. An order in docket 12-70 would allow Dish to use the MSS spectrum for a terrestrial network, they said. The Wireless Bureau may have been aiming for an October date to circulate a waiver order, though it’s unclear if next month will see a draft decision circulate and be voted on by FCC members, an agency official said.
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The FCC appears to support what Dish wants to do, said a satellite attorney. “I think it’s something they probably would like to see Dish go ahead and do,” and it’s consistent with the broader parameters of the FCC National Broadband Plan, the lawyer said. One of the biggest issues the FCC is grappling with is whether it’s appropriate to impose buildout conditions similar to the conditions required for LightSquared, the attorney said. If so, “how aggressive should those be?” the attorney added.
The FCC proposed a three-year buildout requirement to service 30 percent of the population and seven years to serve at least 70 percent of the population, in a rulemaking notice that commission and industry officials have said they expect to be the basis of any forthcoming order. Dish is pushing for building out over a four-year time frame to serve 60 million people and a seven-year time frame to provide coverage to 200 million (CD June 4 p16).
"If the FCC comes in too heavy-handed and Dish just backs away, it’s kind of a self-defeating undertaking, so it’s [FCC] looking for the right balance there,” the attorney said: Dish is likely concerned that “the longer this drags out, it may make it less attractive or harder for them to actually do what they want to do.” The FCC is sensitive to that argument, the attorney added.
Credit Suisse analysts agreed that a final order will likely come before the November presidential election. “We anticipate the final order to include provisions that Dish can easily live with,” like a network buildout requirement similar to those noted in the NPRM, analysts said in a research note. A 5 MHz uplink shift from 2000-2020 MHz to 2005-2025 also is likely to be included, they said.
Dish has strongly urged the FCC in various recent filings that a 5 MHz move of its frequency would be problematic for the usefulness of its 2 GHz satellites and expose AWS-4 base stations to potential interference from federal and Broadcast Auxiliary Station operations above 2025 MHz. Dish and the bureau had no comment.