Matt Daneman

Smooth satellite industry spectrum sharing with terrestrial 5G networks remains a far-off goal, judging by comments Wednesday at Satellite 2017. Possible routes to sharing in a relatively virgin area of upper millimeter wave spectrum were discussed. Since satellite and terrestrial interests are developing V-band technology now, and there's little incumbency in the band, "let's come up with realistic parameters and talk about how we can share and not close doors prematurely" through international regulations, said GSMA Senior Spectrum Adviser Veena Rawat.

With its March interim milestone deadline almost up, Dish Network now says it will roll out a 5G-centric NarrowBand (NB) IoT network within 36 months, and detailed unsuccessful attempts at mergers and acquisitions with carriers including Sprint. "We do not believe that it serves the public interest or makes business sense to build out a 4G/LTE network now that would duplicate networks already offered by the wireless incumbents, and subsequently require an almost immediate upgrade in order to be competitive," Dish said in an FCC interim construction notification Tuesday. The company said it has two possible buildout routes for its AWS-4 and lower 700 MHz E block spectrum licenses: an interim milestone deadline of this month with a final milestone in March 2021, or an accelerated final milestone with a March 2020 deadline.

Global efforts at spectrum harmonization alternately came under fire and were held up for applause by speakers Tuesday at Satellite 2017. The 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference raised questions about whether there's a fundamental breakdown of the ability to harmonize, said Dynamic Spectrum Alliance President Kalpak Gude. GSMA Senior Spectrum Adviser Veena Rawat said harmonization "is not dead." She said one constant issue with harmonization is the long period that can come between allocation of spectrum for a service and the actual rollout of those services in that band. She cited 600 MHz harmonization through the ITU in 2009, with countries today still transitioning their broadcasting.

The data capacity pricing wars among satellite operators won't end anytime soon, though the video distribution business could be slightly more insulated than some other services, speakers said Monday at Satellite 2017. Satellite industry experts and insiders also said the industry is ripe for mergers and consolidation.

Though Ligado wants a cap on the transmit equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) levels for the thousands of its planned satellite-broadband LTE network base stations at 32 dBW at most, realistically they would operate at power levels of half of that or less, the company tells us. Those even-lower power levels still would be within parameters for the company to provide 5G and IoT service with its L-band spectrum, said General Counsel Valerie Green.

SpaceX, OneWeb and Telesat Canada -- already planning non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellations in the Ka- and/or Ku-band (see 1611160010) -- also want FCC approval to put more than 8,000 V-band satellites in orbit. And Boeing plans to operate a 147-satellite V-band constellation atop the 2,900-satellite NGSO V-band constellation already awaiting FCC review (see 1606230050). Wednesday was the deadline for processing round applications triggered by Boeing’s NGSO application (see 1611010060). Aside from the new constellations, O3b and Theia Holdings asked in amendments to be allowed to add V-band capabilities to their pending NGSO applications.

The growth of virtual multichannel video programming distributors and of their subscriber bases is ratcheting up the competitive pressure on legacy MVPDs to consider launching their own, industry experts and watchers told us. That virtual MVPD growth likely will be followed by increased calls for regulation of them, they said. Google meanwhile is stepping up its offerings.

Satellite industry self-protection against cyberattacks, particularly through sourcing of components and software, "is not where it should be," said Greg Garcia, Signal Group executive vice president and former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary-cybersecurity, Wednesday at a CompTIA panel. The industry's awareness about and sophistication in response to threats also "has more room for growth," he said.

Intelsat and OneWeb joining likely would need only FCC International Bureau, not commissioner, approval, although that process still could take months, satellite lawyer and former LightSquared General Counsel Jeff Carlisle told us. He said the deal, announced Tuesday, shouldn't draw a lot of controversial comments. He said the deal doesn't seem to pose horizontal or vertical concentration issues because the two companies operate in different markets. Instead, the combination points to a breaking down of traditional telecom silos of terrestrial/low earth orbit (LEO)/geosynchronous orbit (GEO), much like AT&T/DirecTV did. "You're going to see a lot of these age-old distinctions becoming maybe a little less distinct," Carlisle said. Intelsat said it expects to deal to close in Q3, contingent on regulatory and bondholder approvals. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said in an analyst call Tuesday that the combined company, with Intelsat's GEO system and OneWeb's planned LEO system, opens the door to their together taking a larger satellite broadband market share and doing more work in backhaul carriage, as well as new applications like connected vehicles and over-the-top video distribution. Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm told us the deal opens the door to opportunities like the joined companies working low-latency markets such as 5G and also would let startup OneWeb piggyback off the international landing rights Intelsat already has.

Satellite operators made numerous suggestions to the FCC for tweaks to its proposed set of updates to Part 2 and Part 25 rules to accommodate the boom in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation plans (see 1612150066). More harmonization of FCC rules with the ITU was espoused in comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-408, as were different milestone requirements.