C-Band Clearing on Schedule, Incumbents Say

an ex parte post. It said its ongoing Chapter 11 reorganization shouldn't affect things. The company urged guidance on the claims handling process to be implemented by the relocation payment clearinghouse. In its quarterly report, Intelsat said all encoding systems required to meet the first-phase Dec. 5 deadline are installed, and integrated receivers/decoders needed to complete phase one have been shipped to the earth station operators or are at Intelsat’s vendor’s warehouse. It said critical design reviews for the Galaxy 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 satellites were completed in Q1, as was preliminary design review for Galaxy 37. SES said it's "on track and in some cases ... ahead" of schedule. It said it has done 57% of phase one satellite transitions, including installing 25% of antennas being done in the first phase, with the rest to be completed by Aug. 31. It said incumbent earth stations needing compression equipment have received it, and phase one transition of services needing compression will be done in Q2. It said the pandemic is affecting replacement satellite manufacturing, with some subcontractors' production capabilities impacted, which will delay component deliveries. Eutelsat said it ordered 500 filters and can confirm receipt of the first 100. No transition delays are expected due to filter procurement lead times, and virtual site audits have been completed for 24 of 33 antennas scheduled for transition. Embratel said it notified its Florida earth station customers about the coming retirement of its Star One C1 satellite and its use of spare capacity on SES' SES-4 to ensure continuity of C-band service. It said no earth station customer expressed interest in receiving C-band service after C1 is out of service.