SES Endorsement of C-Band Clearing, Sharing Seen as Satellite Tipping Point
SES' signing onto the joint Intelsat/Intel plan for clearing portions of the C-band downlink spectrum for sharing with terrestrial mobile operations (see 1710020047) greatly increases the likelihood of that proposal moving forward at the FCC, satellite industry insiders told us. Citing a "duty and mission" to protect satellite C-band operations from disruption, SES CEO Karim Sabbagh said Friday the aim is to "ensure that the expansion of the C-band ecosystem in the U.S. will protect the interests of hundreds of established services and millions of American end-users, while at the same time paving the way for the creation of next-generation 5G terrestrial services.”
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The C-band plan likely will get FCC support since it's a route to freeing up spectrum relatively quickly, though it's still a complex process that would have to be done by market in coordination with customers, a satellite industry executive said. One of the big satellite industry concerns is how the band plan translates to other countries, the executive said. Intelsat maintains it doesn't, but that still needs to be made definitive, the executive said. Satellite operators not using C-band might not necessarily object to the proposal since such a transition could be a business opportunity as they pitch their services to customer bases during the transition, the executive said. It could also be a move by satellite operators to head off congressional efforts to free up mid-band spectrum for terrestrial use, the executive said
Mobile operators might complain the plan doesn't go far enough, but C-band's critical nature to satellite -- with applications ranging from government enterprise to cable headend transmissions -- means there's no way it could be broadly deeded to the mobile industry, a satellite industry official said. It "does nothing to help bridge the digital divide in rural America," said Steve Coran of Lerman Senter, who represents the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association.
That SES signed on means it concedes clearing and auctioning the bottom 100 MHz of the C-band is feasible, said New America Foundation's Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. If there's compensation to the satellite industry for relocation, those operators "should not collect a dime for spectrum they received free and are not even using," he said. Calabrese said the FCC can't make decisions on how much of the band is to be cleared for auction until it updates its International Bureau database to show where earth stations actually are operating and what frequencies they're using.
Intelsat's CEO met with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel to push the pact (see 1712040062, 1712200038 and 1801160056). The agency and Satellite Industry Association didn't comment Friday. Rosenworcel in a statement said the C-band plan and SES move "are innovative contributors to the broader discussion about 5G" and as the agency evaluates them, a top priority needs to be scheduling an auction for spectrum bands already available for 5G. "It's not acceptable there is no auction on our calendar" when other nations have mid-band and millimeter wave auctions on deck for this year, she said, in remarks similar to her past comments (see 1801300032). An O'Rielly aide said he has said positive things about the Intelsat C-band plan in the past, without endorsing it, and it's helpful the industry is moving toward a workable solution for 5G deployment in the band.
Telesat and Eutelsat, which also use C-band in North America, didn't comment Friday. Those companies are undoubtedly in talks with Intelsat and SES about how such a sharing plan would work, industry officials said.
SES and Intelsat said the agreement also proposes creating a C-band satellite operator consortium. That group would oversee governance of the initiative, define and implement methodology for spectrum clearance, and be a middleman in talks between satellite operators and parties interested in terrestrial mobile service offerings in specific C-band portions.