C-Band Earth Station Registration Results Seen Not Likely to Deter Sharing With 5G
Though C-band the number of earth stations being registered with the FCC is accelerating as the window heads toward Wednesday closure, consensus among experts we talked to is that results won't dissuade the agency from freeing up some of the band for terrestrial wireless service. The FCC is starting to see that the 3.7-4.2 GHz band is more populated than the agency might have thought but now it will have a good cross-section to ensure there's needed engineering for terrestrial and satellite users "so they can play in the same sandbox," said Society of Broadcast Engineers President Jim Leifer.
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From April 1 to Friday, 12,750 fixed earth stations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band were registered, show International Bureau filing system data. And 2,828 of the earth stations -- 22 percent -- were registered since Oct. 1. Some estimate that as many as 30,000 U.S. C-band earth stations operate (see 1806260027). The FCC didn't comment.
That registration number could ratchet up notably through the window close. "There are many earth stations that have yet to be registered, and the number that have already registered is far more than many predicted," NAB said. It hopes the FCC keeps promoting registration "so that every earth station registers to provide a complete accounting of the C-band’s extensive usage.”
"There could still be many more coming in," Intelsat emailed. "This was a grass roots effort to get the word out, and the broadcast community is still actively working to make sure that antennas get registered." It said the number of registrations "is a crystal clear demonstration that C-band services are widely used throughout our country, and that there are thousands and thousands of [constantly used] downlinks ... that are vital to connecting American citizens to news, entertainment and data." It said its proposal with Intel and SES would pay for installation of filters on C-band antennas, regardless of whether the antenna was registered, "but we have to know where the antennae are in order to protect them." Since the plan clears part of the band, the number of incumbent users doesn't affect 5G use of the band, it said.
Whatever the number, 3.7-4.2 GHz is heavily used, said NPR Vice President-Policy and Representation Mike Riksen. He's confident public radio users were registered. The process at least helps educate the FCC as it decides on terrestrial wireless use of the band, he said: "All this work wouldn't have happened unless there was a pretty strong policy desire to find some space.” He said focus for broadcasters beyond this window is, in many cases, finding an alternate transport mode for content that's as available, affordable and reliable.
Intel Associate General Counsel Peter Pitsch agreed the final number isn't as material as that thousands of earth stations are registered, indicating how complex it will be to reconcile incumbent and 5G uses. He said those thousands reinforce the idea the Intelsat/SES/Intel plan is the most likely route to efficiently tackling that.
The band is "deceptive" in not having many registered users before the current registration process started despite being heavily used, and that lack of registrations is likely what made it attractive in the push to find spectrum for 5G use, said broadcast and cable lawyer Scott Flick of Pillsbury Winthrop. Because of the limited number of candidates for claiming spectrum for 5G and other wireless broadband uses, it's unlikely the FCC will change course, he said. The swath has particularly intractable problems, like the technological challenges of any repacking and moving earth stations to part of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band when satellites can't be brought to earth to retune their downlinks, he said, so opening the band to terrestrial use will require criteria and methodology for protecting existing operations.
Along with the fees that deterred some small operators from registering, another impediment was filling out details about equipment that in some cases is decades old, with records long gone, Flick said. He said that, despite outreach efforts by industry groups, programmers and satellite operators, it's likely some operators remain oblivious.
SBE's Leifer said 12,000 is probably a good representation, though he guessed the actual number of users could be 33 percent higher than the final tally. He said the financial reimbursement and other registration assistance offered by satellite operators played a huge role in those registration numbers. He said satellite operators' next focus will be particularly on guaranteeing protection for customers, while for terrestrial interests a key issue will be in demonstrating the band can share without harmful interference, since the outcome of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band could be a bellwether as spectrum sharing becomes more the norm.