DBS Incumbents Demand Tweener Rules with True Protections
The FCC should proceed with extreme caution and protect DBS incumbents if it lets “tweener” systems operate, EchoStar and DirecTV told the Commission. But SES Americom told the FCC the time is ripe and technology allows use of tweener devices. Commissioner offices are developing positions in the proceeding; replies were due last week.
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The Commission effectively granted tweener authorizations to Spectrum 5 and EchoStar. A 3rd, for SES Americom, is expected soon. With commissioners’ offices addressing the issue, the tweener fight is seen as being at a critical point. Opponents say the first tweener authorizations were “pushed out of the chairman’s office” without thorough investigation. Proponents say the Commission has had the issue for years and DBS incumbents are just trying to protect their turf.
Tweener satellites’ threat is in the record, DirecTV told the Commission. “If tweener systems were allowed to operate as proposed in their applications, a substantial number of current DirecTV subscribers -- up to 50% in some areas -- would lose service entirely due to interference, while the remainder would suffer a significant decrease in signal availability,” DirecTV said: “As proposed, tweener entry would also give foreign tweener systems -- and the administrations that license them -- veto power over U.S. DBS innovation, including the wave of new portable and mobile applications that are just coming to market.”
Tweener proponents “not surprisingly” argue that allowing their systems would benefit the public many ways, DirecTV said: “These two positions are not equally valid. While U.S. DBS operators provided a substantial technical showing of the potential harms that tweener systems could cause, tweener proponents provided very little support for or analysis of their ’third way’ proposals.” DirecTV said scrutiny shows the tweener proposals to be “technically unsound, logistically unworkable, and fundamentally unwise.”
EchoStar said if the FCC allows tweener operations it must protect DBS operators. “The most effective means to ensure that both incumbent and tweener DBS operators receive sufficient interference protection to provide viable commercial offerings is to rely on the results of operator-to-operator agreements,” the company said: “All tweener applicants should be required to coordinate with existing U.S. DBS operators regardless of ITU interference triggers, which have proven inadequate.”
If the FCC adopts its own interference benchmarks, on the other hand, they must be “reflective of real world DBS operations and corresponding operational constraints,” EchoStar said.
Tweener proponents fired back. Allowing tweeners will “lay the foundation” for more competition, give consumers more programming choices and push down prices, SES Americom said. The company noted that it asked for the first tweener authorization 5 years ago. “The time to act is now,” SES said: “More than eight years have passed since the initial discussion of the prospect of reduced orbital spacing for DBS… The record here is now complete, and the sooner the Commission authorizes reduced spacing, the sooner new services can be brought to fruition.”
There’s no “certainty” any nationwide competitors would emerge if the FCC allowed tweeners, SES said. A challenger would need access to significant spectrum, at least 3 satellites at orbital locations and the wherewithal to build a national brand, it said: “One thing, however, is clear: such competition cannot develop absent Commission action to make DBS spectrum available at new orbital locations. Failed past attempts to use a limited number of DBS channels to launch nationwide service suggest that without access to significant DBS bandwidth, a new rival to the two existing DBS incumbents will never emerge.”
Spectrum 5 said the International Bureau is on record suggesting tweeners could mean “more satellite programming choices, more alternatives in subscription video providers and services at reduced prices for those services, and further technological innovation.” The record shows that all but the 2 DBS incumbents agree with this analysis, the company said.
“Reduced orbital spacing will promote spectral efficiency,” Spectrum 5 said: “The relevant inquiry here is whether the benefits from reduced orbital spacing outweigh the costs in terms of the public interest, not the interest of DirecTV. Clearly, the public will benefit from use of additional orbital DBS resources.”