Satellite Spectrum Seen Uninvolved in Incentive Auctions
Congressional authorization for the FCC to begin incentive auctions seems unlikely to affect fixed satellite service spectrum, said industry executives. There’s more potential for action within the mobile satellite service spectrum band, though the FCC’s plans for that spectrum remain unclear, they said. The spectrum bill (CD Feb 24 p10) gives the agency very broad authority to auction broadcast and other spectrum. The general incentive auction ability is limited to where “the Commission conducts a reverse auction to determine the amount of compensation that licensees would accept in return for voluntarily relinquishing spectrum usage rights” and “at least two competing licensees participate in the reverse auction.”
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FSS executives said they don’t expect their spectrum to be in play and the issue was addressed as the legislation was being developed. “Our view on this legislation is that it does not apply to [FSS] spectrum,” said Kalpak Gude, Intelsat associate general counsel. “The industry spoke with folks on the Hill during the drafting and consideration of the bill and highlighted the fact that FSS spectrum was not well suited to national auctions because of the nature of the orbital slot allocation process at the ITU as well as the international nature of our services. We do not believe that exclusion of FSS was accidental, but rather intentional given the nature of the services.” The FCC didn’t comment.
The industry would likely already be up in arms if there were a movement to reallocate spectrum from the satellite operators, said Maury Mechanick, a satellite lawyer at White & Case. If such a threat “were ever perceived, I believe the satellite industry would be extremely vigilant in protecting its spectrum turf,” he said. For instance, during the 2008 World Radio Conference “there was some effort by some countries to allow certain terrestrial services to share the C-band frequencies that are allowed for satellite communications services, and the industry fought that with great vigor and was able to defeat the effort at the ITU,” he said. Mechanick said there’s also “doubt that the spectrum would be usable in the U.S. for other purposes.” The Satellite Industry Association didn’t comment.
Even if FSS spectrum licensees were interested in taking part in the incentive auctions, there are other barriers, said John Hane, a lawyer at Pillsbury Winthrop who’s done satellite work. Most satellite operators “don’t have exclusive rights on the ground to the bands they use,” he said. “They operate in shared bands and coordinate operations with other satellite operators and even with other services by using different satellite slots and different beams. Since they don’t have exclusive use in any geographic area, they really don’t free up any spectrum by agreeing to stop using any particular license.” Given the limited ability for terrestrial use, “it probably wouldn’t draw eye-popping money at auction,” Hane said.
It’s unclear if mobile satellite service spectrum will be involved in the FCC auction. Globalstar won’t be taking part, said General Counsel Barbee Ponder. “We have no plans to take part in any incentive auction.” Dish is already in the process of trying to use the S-band spectrum for terrestrial service and LightSquared’s spectrum has proven unusable, noted a communications lawyer. “While there may be an isolated case or two of satellite operators being in a position to offer up spectrum,” Hane said he doesn’t “see a widespread market for this.”