WASHINGTON — Hughes Network Systems and Inmarsat are requesting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to set up its C-band market guidelines to prevent giving Intelsat and SES an unfair competitive advantage in other spectrum bands and neighboring markets.
In a letter to the FCC published June 29, the companies warned that competitions, especially SES and Intelsat, could use the FCC’s upcoming auction that was C-band to increase satellite capacity in groups and in geographies outside the continental United States.
“This is against the stated intention of the commission in the Order, and not a logical outgrowth from any preceding proposal in the record.”
Hughes and Inmarsat have no satellites, but the operators are now still requesting the FCC to prevent unintentionally reshaping the commercial satcom market to favor the two largest geostationary satellite fleet operators in the world.
Eutelsat, the world’s third biggest metropolitan operator, has produced similar arguments to the FCC as it prepares to purchase a single replacement satellite eligible for reimbursement.
The FCC, under the principles regulating a spectrum auction set for December, is needing winning bidders to cover the costs of satellite operators vacating 300 megahertz of the group, an amount estimated to total as much as $5.2 billion for new spacecraft, launches and land infrastructure that will mainly visit Intelsat and SES.
Hughes along with Inmarsat, echoing comments Eutelsat made to the FCC in May, are advocating the commission to”take steps to make sure that settlement obligations are not utilized to subsidize the cost of deploying new satellite power in frequency bands apart from C-band, or even C-band or even satellite capability that serves areas outside the contiguous United States.”
Hughes and Inmarsat, such as Eutelsat, also want the FCC to”condition the approval of reimbursement obligations on a devotion that the C-band satellite capacity will be used only to serve the USA throughout its useful life.”
Resistance from Intelsat, SES
Intelsat and SES sent letters to the FCC this month claiming manufacturers and operators are well versed in identifying the costs of each and may easily limit reimbursement costs to C-band, that when a satellite has capacity in other frequencies.
Intelsat has signed contracts all or for six satellites, some of that will have over C-band payloads,” the business stated in a letter published June 29.
Intelsat wrote, that necessity could double the number of tanks over North America, together with the use of orbital slots across the arc if the FCC stipulates reimbursable satellites take just C-band payloads.
“Donating satellite operators to procure and establish two unique satellites with unique payloads at a single place for operations in different frequency bands to substitute a single hybrid satellite would be highly wasteful, more costly and possess the potential to postpone the general clearing program,” Intelsat wrote.
All four replacement tanks SES recently ordered together with the expectation of reimbursement is only going to take C-band payloads, according to the organization.
However, SES takes issue with the geographical restrictions that Eulelsat, Hughes and Inmarsat want the FCC to inflict on compensation, stating they would stop it from using its own brand new satellites to pay for Alaska, Hawaii and other areas of the U.S. that are not a part of its own contiguous 48 states.
SES and Intelsat explained Eutelsat’s requirements for unmanned tanks since”thinly veiled” efforts to reevaluate cost compensation for its competitors.
Intelsat expects to purchase one more replacement satellite bringing its total to seven satellites. SES plans to purchase two more, bringing its own C-band replacement total for six. Eutelsat, meanwhile, has yet to announce a contract to get its single C-band replacement satellite it states it requires to keep on serving the U.S. market following the auction.
Telesat and Claro (previously Embratel Star One) state they could clean their proportionally smaller number of customers from the reassigned spectrum without new satellites.
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