The renewal of blanket licenses for mobile earth station terminal...

2 of several clarifications SIA made to the FCC as part of the regulatory review of licensing and spectrum use of satellite network earth stations and space stations. In a letter, SIA said it didn’t support Commission proposals for METs that require MET licensees to bring their networks into use within a year of the issue of the blanket license and proposing renewal only for the licenses for the stations brought into use. SIA said the revocation of licenses for stations not in use “is inconsistent with the concept of blanket licenses as adopted for mobile satellite service (MSS) systems” and with an order which said blanket licenses also cover compatible METs used temporarily in the U.S.: “MET licensees of global MSS systems can never construct or deploy in the U.S. the total number of METs in their U.S. blanket licenses; because they must assume that an indeterminable number of technically compatible roaming METs may be brought into the U.S. by visiting non-U.S. users at any time.” SIA said a similar VSAT proposal -- limiting the number of blanket license renewals based on the number of VSATs actually deployed -- is “impractical” and will only increase the burden on operators and Commission staff: “The very purpose of the Commission’s blanket licensing policy is to permit flexibility and system growth, to reduce administrative overhead for both the Commission and the licensee, and to prevent regulatory delays. Limiting renewals to the number of installed VSATs would defeat the main purpose of the policy and restrict the flexibility it has brought to the licensees.” Additionally, SIA said it opposed “licensing C-band and Ku-band FSS antennas on the basis of power density reductions.”