The FCC has been deluged with comments by SpaceX supporters in recent days on a possible opening up of the 12 GHz band to 5G, but that input likely won't matter in an agency order, administrative law and commission experts told us. The real audience for the comments might be Congress, they said. The commission didn't comment.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
Intelsat and SES expect further delays in satellite aspects of their parts in the C-band Phase II clearing. In their latest docket 18-122 quarterly status updates, they said they still anticipate meeting the overall Phase II clearing deadline. They had warned the FCC earlier this year of some satellite delays (see 2204010052).
SpaceX's move this spring into offering broadband service aimed at RVs (see 2205240020) might face some competition from low earth orbit constellation rivals, but the broader land-mobile broadband market isn't likely to be a big growth area soon for LEO, satellite broadband and vehicle connectivity experts told us. The FCC International Bureau approved SpaceX operating Ku-band earth stations in motion (ESIM) and Kepler operating Ku-band earth stations in vessels (ESV) in U.S. territorial waters and on U.S.-registered watercraft internationally last week, but with conditions.
Crisis call centers around the U.S. expect a slow rise in National Suicide Prevention Lifeline traffic once Lifeline's 988 calling capability goes nationwide later this month. Local exchange carriers are in various stages of readiness for the July 16 deadline.
The FCC is undertaking a revamp of its electronic International Bureau filing system (IBFS), per documents we obtained from the agency via a Freedom of Information Act request. IBFS is used for satellite and international telecommunications applications filings. Contractor Incentive Technology Group, part of digital tech consultancy ICF, didn't comment Friday. The work is "expected to take a couple years," an agency spokesperson emailed. Per agency paperwork we obtained, contractor responsibilities are to "modernize IBFS system and its supporting subsystems" through such steps as custom web interfaces and integrations with existing FCC platforms. It didn't give specifics. An agency Performance Work Statement from December said the agency has been working for more than a year on modernizing the legacy IBFS system and that work lately has focused on such areas as developing international high frequency requirements and on doing defect remediation. The agency said among contractor responsibilities are loading legacy system data -- including legacy satellite, earth station, IHF and Telecommunications and Analysis Division submarine cable data and attachments -- to the new IB production environment.
The commercial availability of equipment that will allow integrated terrestrial/non-terrestrial 5G networks could be 12 to 24 months out, satellite communications and wireless experts told us. With the increasing efforts being made to integrate terrestrial and satellite networks, satcom claiming a bigger role in 5G "is just a matter of time," said Miguel Costa, SES senior product manager-mobile backhaul, on a webinar Thursday. Many satellite experts think a widespread satcom role in 5G will be years off (see 2205180003).
The FCC gave Dish Network and designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless an opportunity to cure control issues in the AWS-3 auction and fair notice of the legal standards it would apply in looking at their claims to be very small companies, said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel Tuesday, again rejecting challenges by the petitioners of the auction outcome. Oral argument was in January (see 2201140032). The D.C. Circuit in 2017 upheld the FCC's withholding of auction bidding credits to the DEs based on too-close ties to Dish (see 1708290012).
Nearly two years since it took effect, the FCC's streamlined licensing regime for small-scale satellite operations is getting mixed feedback from the satellite universe. Some regulatory lawyers say it's an improvement, but others see the process hurting from lack of enough staffing. The FCC didn't comment. Lynk urged the International Bureau earlier this month to approve its pending mobile service application constellation under the streamlined rules, noting it had been pending since May 2021 and it hoped for launches to commence in October (see 2206060002).
As streaming service providers start to take video piracy more seriously, they face big obstacles such as that pirates may offer services that rival the customer experience of legitimate ones, and that the financial cost of piracy remains a big question mark, experts said during a video piracy event Tuesday.
Facing a deluge of federal and state spending aimed at closing the digital divide, broadband internet access service providers and network construction contractors foresee a logjam of work orders. Some tell us they anticipate what could be significant delays in work to extend networks to unserved rural areas.