NGSO Applications on June Agenda Seen Easily Passing
The pair of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications on the June 7 commissioners' meeting agenda (see 1805160051) will likely get 4-0 approval and point to the FCC clustering future approvals, with others likely later this year, experts told us.
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Since the agency did Telesat and Space Norway approvals in a batch in November (see 1711030063), and now is lumping Audacy and O3b together, future NGSO applications are likely to be pushed out in the same fashion, said a satellite executive. Operators would like the review and approval process to go faster, yet there's also recognition the agency is dealing with complex issues and hasn't had to deal with NGSO applications for years, and the International Bureau has had numerous other items on its plate in recent months, the executive said. Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup expects other applications to be granted this year. A lawyer with NGSO experience said some technical questions were raised about Audacy's system, not likely anything leading to a dissent.
Past processing rounds were typically handled at the bureau level, but going for commissioner approval adds time to the review and approval process, an lawyer with NGSO experience said. That attorney said commissioners may be approving applications personally because there's precedent for doing so and they want to keep on that path. That lawyer said the agency potentially could resolve multiple batches of two to three applications still this year, though ones with the most complexity -- like Boeing's proposed handoff of some of its applications to SOM1101 and the objections some have raised in response (see 1802130019) -- might be done at the tail end.
In addition to having half of its constellation in orbit within six years, O3b must operate on all proposed frequencies within that time, under a proposed order released Thursday. It would modify the company's U.S. market access grant to allow 26 additional NGSO satellites. The FCC said 12 O3b satellites in orbit won't be counted toward the milestone conditions. The agency dismissed Iridium claims that a November amendment is a major amendment that shouldn't be part of the existing NGSO processing round, saying O3b's request wouldn't adversely affect other processing round applicants.
The Audacy proposed order and authorization conditions approval on the company getting favorable rating of its equivalent power flux density (EPFD) demonstration from the ITU before initiating service. Operators said Audacy's EPFD analysis is insufficient.
Audacy and O3b see part of their spectrum asks kicked down the road for future consideration. Both proposed orders would defer action on the companies' requested the 50.4-51.4 GHz band for uplinks pending decisions in the spectrum frontiers proceeding regarding satellite service and sharing rules in the V-band. The proposed orders also explicitly conditioned authorization on the companies' future compliance with any future limits put on out-of-band-emissions in the 49.7-50.2 GHz band adopted at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference or future FCC rulemaking.
Other June 7 tentative agenda draft items released Thursday were on 5G and robotexts: 1805170068; and on the wireline phone IP transition and on USF: 1805170060.