Tim Warren

Talk at the FCC of Universal Service Fund reform to include broadband services has satellite companies concerned over the possibility of increased contribution rates without any subsidy in return, industry executives said. Under the current system, companies pay into the USF based on their interstate and international end-user telecom revenue and generally leave satellite companies out of the running for subsidies. If a future version of the USF includes broadband, as proposed by the FCC and tentatively named the Connect America Fund (CAF), satellite companies could be left paying for expansion of competing technologies again, executives said.

Complaints that the satellite industry lacks effective competition are an inappropriate attempt to inject a private dispute into an FCC proceeding, Intelsat said in reply comments for the International Bureau’s annual Satellite Competition Report. The dispute over a Defense Department contract that an Intelsat subsidiary won “illustrates the highly competitive environment in which satellite network services are provided to end users and how the removal of historic restraints on Intelsat’s ability to serve end users directly has benefited consumers” with lower prices and higher efficiency, it said. CapRock and Spacenet, which have expressed qualms about competition in the proceeding (CD Aug 27 p7) and another one (CD April 12 p6), are mischaracterizing “conditions in the highly competitive satellite industry,” said Intelsat. Microcom has also alleged problems in the market.

Open Range Communications got more time from the FCC to find spectrum other than the S-band spectrum it has been leasing from Globalstar, the agency said on reconsideration Thursday. The International and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology extended what was originally a 60-day special temporary authority to Jan. 31, 2011, during which the company must find alternative spectrum for its service. Open Range has leased Globalstar’s terrestrial spectrum since 2008. The FCC recently denied a waiver request from Globalstar that would have let Open Range continue its service in that spectrum (CD Sept 16 p6).

JetBlue Airways plans to offer in-flight broadband connectivity using ViaSat satellites and equipment, starting in 2012, the companies said. Many details are still being worked out, but ViaSat’s role marks a new stage for the company, which concentrated on the satellite equipment business before buying WildBlue last year. WildBlue will be the network operator of the service, an industry executive said.

A draft FCC order that would expand a Sirius XM channel set-aside originally meant for minorities is expected to gain approval largely as-is, commission officials said. But “nothing is set in stone,” said one. The commission is expecting several meetings with interested parties in the next weeks that may produce changes, the officials said. The draft on circulation would allow Sirius XM to choose companies that don’t now have programming relationships with it to fill 4 percent of the satellite company’s channels (CD Sept 7 p2).

The FCC denied Globalstar’s extension request for a deadline to reach compliance with the agency’s ancillary terrestrial component rules, in a decision late Tuesday by the International and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology. The denial prevents the company from offering terrestrial services until it regains compliance with the ATC rules. Satellite industry executives found the order surprising, considering recent moves the agency has made to make the MSS/ATC spectrum more usable for mobile terrestrial broadband services. Some consider the move a demonstration of the commission’s commitment to enforce buildout requirements as the agency seeks to increase development in the band (CD July 16 p1).

Broadcasters’ arguments against the use of an indoor antenna standard to determine significantly viewed signal eligibility are “all either non-existent or easy to resolve,” Dish Network and DirecTV said in reply comments with the FCC. The two DBS companies get congressional intent wrong when they seek to change proposed FCC rules implementing STELA so indoor antennas can be used, a wide array of broadcasters said in docket 10-152. Broadcasters and DBS disagree whether indoor antennas can be used to test if a subscriber can’t receive terrestrial signals from a local TV station and so is eligible to get a distant station affiliated with the same network (CD Aug 26 p2). The law requires the commission to act by Nov. 23.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Space debris in low earth orbit will make satellite operations there increasingly difficult, possibly requiring some sort of device to catch the floating “dead bodies” and bring them back to Earth, said Wade Pulliam, a Tactical Technology Office program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The huge number of maneuvers to avoid conjunctions will continue to increase dramatically if launch schedules and compliance continue at the status quo, he told a American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference. Those maneuvers can reduce the lives of LEO satellites, he said. As a result, he said there are two options for the LEO satellites: Operators will need to increase the accuracy of maneuvers, making movements only when truly necessary to extend satellite life, or remove the space debris.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- While satellite manufacturers have the technical ability to provide modern broadband speeds, it isn’t clear yet if the economics are right for mass satellite broadband offerings, said Christopher Hoeber, Space Systems/Loral senior vice president of program management and systems engineering during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference. Broadband satellites require about three times as much equipment as most other satellites, adding to their costs and power needs, he said on a panel. The difficulty of designing Internet protocols to deal with the inherent latency of the satellite broadband and the expense of modems also make satellite broadband a difficult business, he said.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Arianespace will rely on a wider range of launch vehicles to give the company stability as the large satellite operators’ launch campaigns approach the tail end of launch cycles, said Clay Mowry, the U.S. president of Arianespace said on a panel at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference. While the company’s revenue has suffered in the past from the end of commercial satellite launch cycles, Arianespace is hoping that a bigger variety of launch vehicles to launch different types of satellites will help keep its manifest schedule full, he said. Maintaining a full manifest is the biggest challenge for the company, especially since it has so little effect on demand for launch services, he said.