CBA Loses Eutelsat, Stirring Further C-Band Speculation
One of four members left a group of satellite operators seeking to have its sector sell about 200 MHz that would be repurposed for 5G. Eutelsat dropped out of the C-Band alliance, it said in a brief FCC filing and release Tuesday. It cited disagreements with other CBA members, without being more specific. The company wishes to “take a direct active part on discussions on C-band clearing and repurposing,” it said. The departure stirred more speculation about what might happen to the swath of airwaves.
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Intelsat, SES and Telesat “are fully committed to the market-based approach for clearing C-band spectrum in the U.S.,” their group responded. “CBA remains committed to delivering its expeditious, market-based proposal and the departure of Eutelsat does not impact the CBA’s ability to do so. The remaining members ... represent approximately 95% of the affected revenues of the US C-band market.” They’re “aligned and committed to the process of engaging with the FCC,” the coalition added.
"Eutelsat continues to support the CBA proposal for a market-driven clearing of the lower portion of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band," it said. It left the group because it's "not in alignment with certain of the other CBA members on certain issues," it added, not being specific. The company "will cooperate fully to" support "a market-based approach to make a portion of C-band satellite spectrum available for the mobile industry" for 5G, a spokesperson emailed. It's "committed to protect the quality and reliability of the extensive services provided to U.S. broadcasters, media, and data companies," she added. It's best "to take into account and to balance the legitimate interests of all the stakeholders." That includes earth-station operators, small satellite operators, customers and content providers, the representative said.
Backers of the so-called 5G plus plan seek an FCC-led auction of at least 300 MHz of the band, noted America’s Communications Association, the Competitive Carriers Association and Charter Communications. Besides repeating their aim, the coalition and members didn't comment further.
"Eutelsat dropping out makes it more difficult," said Wireless ISP Association CEO Claude Aiken in an interview. "It makes it harder for the CBA to get their proposal over the finish line, because in a lot of respects, it depends on the unanimity of operators to be able to clear that spectrum in a timely manner." With added "complexity, and it looks like things are going to go slower, that proposal doesn’t look as good vis a vis some of the other things on the table," Aiken said. The CBA and 5G plus proposals "had a lot of unanswered questions about them," he said.
Advocacy on the swath of airwaves continued, meanwhile, with an NAB blog post later the same day and an ACA filing earlier Tuesday.
NAB noted satellite operators say "the right number is 200 MHz and have demonstrated how they can accommodate content distribution in the remaining 300 MHz." NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden slammed New Street’s Blair Levin for saying a fiber proposal gives the FCC leverage with the satellite operators. That's "inaccurate, but, more importantly, it’s irrelevant," McFadden blogged. McFadden noted no content providers support that cable-backed plan. "If the satellite operators say 200 MHz can be reallocated and others really want 400 MHz, the solution isn’t to browbeat the operators into giving up 300 MHz and throwing in a rustproofing treatment," he wrote. "Look at the information the operators have submitted regarding their transition plan and determine how much capacity can be made available without driving the entire American content ecosystem into a ditch." NAB declined to comment on CBA's losing Eutelsat.
"If it’s irrelevant, why did they spend any time attacking" his analysis, Levin asked us of NAB. "I certainly respect NAB’s arguments. I certainly disagree with them." The analyst/lawyer still thinks FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants "something different from what NAB wants" here: The regulator "certainly wants more spectrum returned than NAB would like." Pai may want about 300 MHz repurposed (see 1908200044).
ACA is having "conversations about the 5G Plus Plan with MVPD programmers that use the C-band for delivery of video programming and have participated in the proceeding," Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman reported telling an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. ACA soon "will lay out in detail how the fiber network would be designed, established, launched, maintained, and paid for, particularly the part of the network that connects programmers to data centers," Lieberman wrote, in docket 18-122. "The network would provide the MVPD industry with the same or better reliability than what they receive from satellite providers via the C-band."