Donald Trump's incoming administration has become a key subject in fundraising and mobilization efforts by multiple telco advocacy groups in recent weeks. The amount of messaging that's overtly political is higher than ever, some experts tell us. "Telecom has always been a political process; when you're talking about subsidies of billions of dollars, let's not kid ourselves here," said Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak. "But it wasn't what you see now at all."
Consideration of Boeing's V-band satellite constellation plans could involve which companies -- satellite operators or terrestrial wireless -- are well-suited to serve the rural market. CTIA, T-Mobile and Straight Path Communications, in final replies Monday to Boeing's application for its non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) mega constellation, disputed which technology is best for serving rural subscribers. Boeing's application also triggered a processing round with a March 1 deadline for applications and petitions for declaratory ruling on similar NGSO satellite operations in the same frequency bands.
As WHDH Boston fights Comcast-NBCUniversal over the network's move of NBC affiliation to an owned-and-operated station (see 1603110031), broadcast industry experts tell us more such affiliation shifts could be coming if and when there's a successful conclusion to the broadcast incentive auction. Meanwhile, many say the political pressure that was put on Comcast in the fight likely had scant effect.
Possible rules dealing with interference between broadcast satellite service (BSS) earth stations and direct broadcast satellite transmissions are on circulation on the eighth floor. The FCC Friday began circulating BSS Rules in the 17.3-17.8 GHz band. An FCC official said the proposed rules -- the result of the agency's soliciting comments last year on potential ground-path interference rules for 17/24 GHz reverse band BSS operations (see 1510260018) -- would grandfather in older earth stations but require coordination between future deployments of feeder links and BSS earth stations.
The July spectrum frontiers order opening high-frequency bands to 5G needs to go back to the drawing board, said the satellite industry and multiple individual satellite operators in a series of reconsideration petitions in docket 14-177. Multiple filers pushed in particular for the FCC to give fixed satellite service (FSS) downlink spectrum in the 42 GHz band and for less stringent rules on locating earth stations. Also last week, wireless interests had sought changes to the order (see 1612150067).
Increased spectrum congestion eventually will necessitate more enforcement work for 5G, including possibly addressing receiver performance characteristics, said some panelists at a Hudson Institute-hosted panel Friday. A first step must be technical rules for what constitutes unauthorized harmful interference and defining the line at which such harm justifies enforcement action, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said. As services increasingly bump against one another, regulators at some point must confront whether receivers play a role in spillover, he said.
The FCC could make more spectrum available in the 17.8-18.3 GHz band for fixed satellite service (FSS) systems on a secondary basis, said a proposal approved unanimously and earlier set for a vote at Thursday's commissioners' meeting (see 1612140067 and 1612150048) and then OK'ed instead on circulation. In an NPRM adopted Wednesday and released Thursday on proposed updates to Part 2 and Part 25 rules to accommodate the boom in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation plans (see 1610210055), it said it also is considering more flexibility in the 18.3-18.6 GHz, 18.8-19.4 GHz, 19.6-20.2 GHz and 29.3-29.5 GHz bands, though they would be subject to terrestrial coordination. The NPRM also proposes rationalizing agency rules with international power limits on NGSO FSS operations in parts of the 17.8-20.2 GHz and 27.5-30 GHz bands and amending satellite milestone and geographic coverage rules. And the agency said it wanted comment on different criteria for spectrum sharing among NGSO FSS systems. The agency said the proposed updates to NGSO FSS rules were prompted by the proposed Boeing (see 1607110043) and OneWeb (see 1604290016) constellations highlighting a need for updating rules instituted more than a decade ago. It said allowing secondary FSS use in the 17.8-20.2 GHz band and new FSS operations in the 19.3-19.4 GHz, 19.6-19.7 GHz, and 29.3-29.5 GHz bands would codify existing practices and formally allow OneWeb's proposed spectrum use. The agency said rules allow spectrum sharing by letting NGSO FSS systems operate throughout its authorized band except during in-line events -- when the topocentric angle between the satellites is less than 10 degrees -- but it wanted comment on whether the separation-angle trigger should be increased or decreased. It wants comment on possible adoption of effective isotropic radiated power density limits for NGSO FSS uplink transmissions. And it proposed changing the six-year milestone obligation for NGSO systems so having 75 percent of an authorized constellation launched and in operation would be sufficient to meet the requirement. Comments are due 45 days after Federal Register publication.
The U.S. hopes to incorporate more commercial satellite capabilities into its national defense architecture, but changes first need to made in federal procurement rules to allow longer-term contracts, said Robert Tarleton, director-Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate, Air Force Space Command, at a satellite industry panel Tuesday. Tarleton said the Air Force is looking at issuing a Pathfinder that would let it buy transponder space on commercial satellites before launch, letting the agency be part of the design of the satellite architecture. Pathfinder is a DOD business model that lets the agency commit to using commercial satellite transponders for multiple years instead of shorter-term operations and maintenance leases. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is considering experimenting with an acquisition model where it would put out unclassified orders for imagery of specific areas or incidents -- such as troop placements in foreign countries -- and earth imaging companies could compete to provide the pixels, data and/or analysis, rather than its traditional approach of long-term acquisition contracts, said NGA Director-Source Strategies Chirag Parikh. He also said with capabilities from earth imaging satellite operators like DigitalGlobe and Planet Labs, imagery acquisition is no longer a challenge but data processing and analysis are, with the U.S. considering outsourcing more routine analysis work to commercial operators.
The satellite industry is shoving back on wireless industry arguments against Boeing's plans for 2,900-plus V-band satellite constellation. "Authorizing V-band service does not require the Commission to choose between terrestrial and satellite services," the company said in an International Bureau filing Monday, taking aim at various wireless interest arguments that Boeing's proposed satellite constellation would hamper V-band use for 5G (see 1612020002). Satellite Industry Association said wireless arguments that the spectrum frontiers proceeding should supersede Boeing's application are flawed since the agency isn't required to complete more work on the frontiers before the bureau takes substantive action on the Boeing request.
As some former opponents to Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) broadband plans sign off on its revised structure, some interested parties and observers tell us the proceeding could be at the stage where it's considered uncontroversial. It thus could see FCC action, if some commissioners' "no" votes change to "yes." House and Senate Republican Commerce committee chairmen had urged the agency not to act on any controversial items before the administration transition (see 1611150052). Meanwhile, another TLPS critic, Wi-Fi Alliance, may be changing its mind.