$3.53B Cost to Clear C Band, Satellite Operators Estimate
Clearing the 3.7-4 GHz band of incumbent satellite services for terrestrial use of the spectrum will cost about $3.53 billion, under estimates from satellite providers that were due Friday. The FCC C-band clearing order in February cited estimates of $2.8 billion-$6.1 billion. The agency didn't comment Monday.
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The bulk of Intelsat's estimated expense involves seven new satellites, at $790 million, said its transition plan in docket 18-122. The seven are necessary to balance out capacity, compression, gains and legacy C-band services within the time frame of the FCC's band clearing, it said. It estimated $390 million for four launches and insurance, with launches mid-2022 through mid-2023, and $400 million for repacking and customer migration covering 10 customers and more than 13,000 affiliates. It said its transition plan also involves consolidating its telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C)/gateway antennas to two locations, one each on the U.S. East and West coasts, at $95 million.
Four new C-band satellites -- three replacements and a spare, all to be launched by the end of Q3 2022 -- for SES are the bulk of its $1.67 billion estimated transition cost, said its plan. SES would consolidate TT&C locations to two, installing tens of thousands of antenna filters for thousands of earth stations. It estimated having to do such steps as relocations of 68 gateways and compression or modulation upgrades for 11 customer services. SES said for services below 4 GHz on its international satellites that can't be transitioned above 4 GHz because of lack of capacity issues on international satellites, it will do other tech upgrades, though the full transition mightn't be done before the FCC's first-phase clearing deadline. Intelsat and SES said their new satellites would be built in the U.S. (see 2006160014).
Eutelsat's estimate is $170.9 million, with $150 million for one new C-band satellite and launch, it said. Other costs include $3.5 million for 350 3.7-meter antennas and $3.5 million for three months of dual illumination capacity costs in the 392.5 MHz band, plus $3.6 million for a temporary station for dual illumination in the 4-4.2 GHz band and $1 million for engineering and other costs of repacking for existing satellites. It said that new satellite will replace the Eutelsat 113 West A satellite, which is scheduled for de-orbiting in May 2023, which originally the company wasn't going to replace but now extra capacity is needed to keep serving C-band customers using just the 4-4.2 GHz portion of the band. It didn't now anticipate earth station technology upgrades, including compression encoding and modulation equipment, will be needed. It expected it will update the estimate, including through incorporation of additional FCC guidance, through Aug. 14.
Telesat said it will clear all 300 MHz in one swoop, rather than two phases, doing all the work by the end of June 2021. The transition won't require technology upgrades or implementing video compression or modulation, other than new band pass filters, it said. Telesat said its estimated expense range for clearing will be $1.08 million to $1.56 million.
Claro's C-band Star One C1 satellite will be taken out of service in mid-2021 anyway and replaced with Star One C2, now in orbit and authorized to operate in the Ku band in the U.S. but not the C band, it said. A contract with SES will cover Claro's C-band obligations in Florida during the transition, which will involve re-pointing one antenna, it said. Claro didn't expect to request reimbursement of its transition costs.
Cox officials, in phone meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly and the Wireless and International bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology staff, urged the commission make clear that MVPDs are eligible for technology upgrade lump sum payments as part of the estimate costs of relocating incumbent earth stations. They said MVPD tech upgrade payments shouldn't be limited to earth stations operating in the C band post-transition and should include transcoder costs. They said the lump sum's proposed base payments "significantly underestimate" MVPD transition costs and suggested lump sum amounts of $39,350 for an MVPD receive-only single-feed earth station and $293,423 for a multi-beam earth station.
The relocation payment clearinghouse search committee filed questions it received from potential vendors and its answers. Questions covered such turf as neutrality and independence and privacy and data security.