EchoStar, Inmarsat Pushing for Spectrum Frontiers Changes
EchoStar and Inmarsat are pushing for reconsideration of some parts of the FCC spectrum frontiers decision. Representatives of the companies, in a meeting Monday with the International Bureau Satellite Division, said parts of spectrum frontiers "did not sufficiently consider the…
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relative costs and benefits" and urged the FCC to revise the conditions for deployment of fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations by axing the rule barring deployment near roads, event venues, railroads and other specific locations -- calling that rule "ambiguous at best" -- and replacing the 0.1 percent metric for earth station deployment with the coordination regime previously proposed by EchoStar and AT&T. The two satellite companies said that coordination regime would let the FCC delete the rule limiting FSS operators to three earth stations in a county or partial economic area. The satellite operators also urged the FCC to set up a means for letting FSS operators identify where upper microwave flexible use services are operating, such as a licensing database, to help with coordination, and to clarify the application of its rules to permit additional antennas at grandfathers 28 GHz earth station sites and to provide that most UMFUS service rules to FSS operators that acquire a UMFUS license for the purpose of protecting their earth stations. An EchoStar/Inmarsat filing Tuesday in docket 14-177 said the meeting included EchoStar Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner, Inmarsat Regulatory Director Giselle Creeser and Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque. A separate ex parte filing in the docket Tuesday recapped a meeting between EchoStar and division personnel about means for ensuring FSS and UMFUS have adequate access to the 39, 47 and 50 GHz bands. That filing said EchoStar urged the FCC to preserve FSS' co-primary status in the 47 GHz and lower GHz bands and adopt the AT&T/EchoStar joint sharing proposal for those bands (see 1604070059). EchoStar also said the FCC needs to refrain from acting on the upper 50 GHz band since that could unduly influence the outcomes of ITU radiocommunication sector studies of the band, plus a Boeing petition for rulemaking regarding the band. The satellite firm said the FCC should allow FSS systems to operate in the 39 GHz band at ITU-approved power-flux density levels so as to overcome rain fade.