With C-Band Antenna Deadline Looming, Fallout From Not Registering Unclear
The deadline for C-band earth station registration is 30 days away and the broadcast industry and satellite operators are urging earth station operators to register with the FCC, even as it's unclear what ramifications might be for those who don't. Some broadcasters -- blanching at the $435-per-earth station registration expense -- decided they won't register "and will just roll with it and hope for the best," Society of Broadcast Engineers President Jim Leifer told us. The FCC didn't comment.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Since April 1, 5,308 earth stations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band have registered, according to the International Bureau Filing System. The C-band earth station registration window closes Oct. 17. Some have estimated as many as 30,000 such earth stations are in the U.S. (see 1806260027).
The actual number of downlinks in the U.S. is unknown because registering them has never been a requirement, Intelsat emailed. "Every single site is important, because the costs to not being registered -- being exposed to signal interference with no recourse -- is not acceptable." Intelsat expects to spend close to 240 person hours supporting the technical aspects of registration of thousands of its customers' sites, with engineering times available to help complete Form 312 and the Schedule B filings. The company said it's supporting "nearly 4,000" customers and adding to that daily.
The consequences of not registering are ultimately up to the FCC, "but there is a real risk [operators] will not be eligible for interference protection or reimbursement for costs such as filtering to accommodate terrestrial use of C-band," NAB emailed us. "It’s critical that users register to protect their operations." Thousands of registrations have been filed, including hundreds in the past week, and the association hopes "users won’t wait until the last minute, but we expect that operators will continue to file in the coming weeks right up to the deadline."
The C-band NPRM approved in July (see 1807120037) suggests only incumbent operators in the band will be considered for future changes such as protection while continuing to operate in the band or relocation provisions if the band is opened up to terrestrial 5G use, said broadcast and cable lawyer Michelle McClure of Fletcher Heald. She said it's clear only current operators who have registered will be protected, and for those that don't register, "they aren't going to take you into account." She said the NPRM indicates if there's a process for reimbursement of expenses for relocating or upgrading facilities, only protected incumbents might be able to take advantage. She said it's clear that an operator who doesn't register will need to make some kind of alternate plans other than using the C-band for delivery.
For broadcasters, registering an earth station operation doesn't give any protection guarantees, but the value is that the FCC knows how much of the band is in use, Leifer said. "They'll get the lay of the land." Many smaller broadcast operations consider the registration costs a financial hardship without a corresponding benefit, he said: "The argument is ... I will not be guaranteed I will be protected, so why spend the money?" He said an ideal "carrot" would be registration leading to reimbursement of potential expenses such as installation of filters.
The few C-band earth station operators who registered their receive-only dishes and did frequency coordination before the current registration window opened are protected from interference, said broadcast and cable lawyer Scott Flick of Pillsbury Winthrop. Since interference hasn't been a big issue in the band and given the expense for the registration, a lot didn't bother to do so, he said. The current registration window eliminates the frequency coordination requirement and expense but comes with the caveat that operators might not get the same interference protection as those who do frequency coordination, Flick said. He said one issue not getting much attention is that the FCC said people who register in the current window without frequency coordination might face a future requirement to do so. NAB called it "unlikely" that coordination reports might be required in the future given how much the band's use may be changing.
The general industry current assumption is that existing earth stations will be allowed to continue to exist and be protected and that private solutions will be the norm for handling situations where a particular earth station might start seeing interference from terrestrial 5G operations, Flick said. He said there should be less gray area once there's a better understanding of what new uses are likely coming into the band, since some are easier to protect incumbents from than others. Flick said it's not a given that the FCC would have some ability to be involved in a reimbursement fund for C-band operators without an act of Congress authorizing it.