OneWeb Constellation Seen as Test of Aging NGSO Rules
With OneWeb hoping to get the beginnings of its planned 720-satellite network in orbit as soon as late 2017, the company is seeking access to the U.S. market for its planned low earth orbit (LEO) non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation. But OneWeb's petition for declaratory ruling (PDR) filed Thursday with the FCC International Bureau could face challenges in the first major test of NGSO fixed satellite service (FSS) rules crafted during the last NGSO satellite boom, but for much smaller constellations, satellite industry experts tell us. Meanwhile, the agency is preparing some updates.
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"The FCC has not looked at [those rules] in close to 20 years," meaning the agency will be doing a careful analysis and the proceeding will not be a quick one, said Stephanie Roy of Steptoe & Johnson, whose clients include satellite operators. The agency likely will focus in particular on spectrum sharing issues. The PDR proceeding, meanwhile, shouldn't affect OneWeb's launch, though the company won't be able to offer service in the U.S. without that FCC approval, she said.
The NGSO rules have been largely "frozen in amber" since the late 1990s-early 2000s era of such planned constellations as Teledesic and SkyBridge, one satellite expert told us. But these large constellation issues seem likely to come up again with the FCC because the NGSO industry is in a boom, with close to three dozen filings before the ITU in the past year or two, the satellite expert said.
OneWeb's planned constellation will include about 40 satellites in each of 18 orbital planes, all at an altitude of roughly 1,200 km, it said. OneWeb Vice President-Legal Regulatory Kalpak Gude told us that after the launch of its first satellites for testing purposes, the company plans to begin the full launch of the constellation in 2018.
OneWeb said it would use the Ku-band for links between satellites and user terminals -- 10.7-12.7, 12.75-13.25 and 14-14.5 GHz -- and Ka-band for links between the satellites and gateway earth stations -- 17.8-18.6, 18.8-19.3, 19.7-20.2, 27.5-29.1 and 29.5-30 GHz. While they would be isolated from geostationary orbit satellites and earth stations most of the time by their near-polar orbits, OneWeb said, when its satellites get close to the equator, they will tilt and adjust beam usage to avoid interference.
One FCC official told us the agency likely will have a processing round in which it invites other NGSO applicants to submit plans. A satellite industry expert told us the agency almost surely will get some applicants from NGSOs hoping to operate in the same bands as OneWeb. From there, qualified applicants would have to negotiate on sharing spectrum, the industry expert said.
As part of its PDR, OneWeb is seeking a waiver of band segmentation procedures that could come into play if there isn't enough spectrum available for all qualified applicants in a processing round -- segmentation procedures that OneWeb said could limit its use of the 10.7-11.7 GHz band to the point it can't maintain a high-speed broadband service. The FCC official said the segmentation waiver may not be necessary since the agency has rules that allow sharing while not requiring segmentation.
The agency is putting together an NGSO FSS NPRM, looking at relatively minor issues such as whether the milestone requirement of launching of an entire constellation within six years makes sense given the size of NGSO constellations being contemplated, and the appropriateness of the 10-degree separation when defining an in-line event, the FCC official said, adding that the NPRM could be circulated later this year.
The OneWeb constellation's expected applications range from high-speed Internet connectivity to rural and remote areas; mobility services for terrestrial, aeronautical and maritime users; emergency communications; and acting as cellular backhaul for ISPs and mobile operators, including for macrocell deployments, it said. Backing the constellation plans, it said, is more than $500 million that has come from such companies as Airbus, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola, EchoStar, Intelsat, MacDonald Dettwiler, Qualcomm, Totalplay and Virgin Group.