NEW ICO FUTURE UP IN AIR AS FCC PONDERS DECISION
FCC decision on use of terrestrial repeaters is likely to determine fate of New ICO, Vp-External Affairs Gerry Salemme told us Fri. Past filings by company have said it couldn’t survive without Commission approval to use terrestrial spectrum for proposed satellite broadband service (CD May 31 p3). Project may be scrapped despite $3 billion investment, including $660 million from Chmn. Craig McCaw, ICO filings and McCaw have said in recent comments. McCaw has struggled with what to do with ICO after pulling it out of bankruptcy, industry sources said. Company has faced major opposition from wireless industry in effort to gain regulatory approval for revamped service, including Cingular, Sprint and AT&T. “We would be in a very difficult” position and we would have to “review our business plan,” Salemme said.
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ICO debate has moved to FCC’s 8th floor, where it’s being evaluated, industry official told us: “The FCC is trying to move forward. The issues in this case aren’t particular clear and this Commission has been particularly slow” in making decisions. New ICO decision has been pending for year. One of reasons for delay is said to be number of bureaus involved. International and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering & Technology have input in final decision, FCC source said: “That has slowed the process down and made a decision that much more difficult.”
If Commission rules against New ICO, company could turn to Iridium type service that depended on govt. and military users, Salemme said. “We can’t sell the satellites,” he said, because they have been tailor-made for ICO. McCaw also has been actively seeking other uses of satellites, including to provide air traffic management services for Boeing, industry sources told us. “We definitely have an issue,” Salemme said: New ICO has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but has been unable to move forward because of slow regulatory process at FCC.
New ICO attacked results of studies by Comsearch and Telecordia for AT&T Wireless Services (AWS), Cingular and Sprint, respectively, in Fri. comments at FCC. Analysis by New ICO researcher Radio Dynamics said wireless studies supported New ICO position that satellite services couldn’t be operated independently operated in same spectrum at same time. New ICO said it was possible for satellites and wireless to share spectrum. Radio Dynamics “refutes the erroneous assumptions and conclusions” of wireless industry that “co-frequency sharing between integrated ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) and satellite component (SC) of mobile satellite services (MSS) is infeasible,” New ICO said: Comsearch research is based on “questionable assumptions such as the Earth is flat.”
Independent severed terrestrial service can co-exist with MSS in 2 GHz MSS frequencies, New ICO filing said. Opposition and late filings by wireless opponents are designed to indefinitely delay Commission from deciding matter either way and was ploy to “slowly kill off MSS” industry, New ICO said. Proposals to segment and reallocate MSS spectrum are beyond scope of proceeding, it said, and should be considered as part of 3G proceeding. Salemme said company wasn’t interested in auction because dynamics of band prevented spectrum from being allocated through competitive bidding, and Commission rules exempted satellite companies from auctions. He also denied claim that New ICO proposal was nothing more than “spectrum grab” as some wireless opponents have suggested. “If we wanted terrestrial spectrum, it would've been cheaper to buy it at auction,” than launch satellite service, Salemme said.
Northpoint decision supports auctioning MSS spectrum for terrestrial band, AT&T Wireless said in Fri. filing. Terrestrial use of MSS band will proceed most efficiently if it’s open to all eligible applicants, rather than reserved for existing satellite operators that received licenses with no expectation of terrestrial rights, filing said. FCC has authority to give operators flexibility of use where warranted, AT&T said. Like 12GHz spectrum in Northpoint case, 2 GHz band can support satellite and terrestrial users, it said. New ICO is different from Northpoint because it’s satellite-based service whereas Northpoint is terrestrial- based service “targeted to cities,” Salemme said: “Unlike Northpoint, we have satellites up and running and we already have a satellite license.”