The Satellite Industry Association repeated concerns for a proposed secondary air-to-ground (ATG) mobile broadband service in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band. Recent developments, like AT&T’s plans to build a new 4G LTE ATG system, “undercut the alleged need for access to new spectrum for air-ground broadband operations,” SIA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket RM-11640 (http://bit.ly/1nvdDRQ). Demand for broadband in-flight connectivity will be met with primary spectrum allocations, “without the need to craft a complicated sharing regime between technically diverse secondary and primary services,” it said. Qualcomm proposed the ATG service and the FCC issued an NPRM based on that request. Qualcomm’s suggested revisions to the aeronautical mobile service “are based on unrealistic assumptions regarding satellite networks,” SIA said. They don’t provide for adequate enforcement of the limits necessary to protect the primary fixed satellite service, it said.
The Satellite Industry Association repeated concerns for a proposed secondary air-to-ground (ATG) mobile broadband service in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band. Recent developments, like AT&T’s plans to build a new 4G LTE ATG system, “undercut the alleged need for access to new spectrum for air-ground broadband operations,” SIA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket RM-11640 (http://bit.ly/1nvdDRQ). Demand for broadband in-flight connectivity will be met with primary spectrum allocations, “without the need to craft a complicated sharing regime between technically diverse secondary and primary services,” it said. Qualcomm proposed the ATG service and the FCC issued an NPRM based on that request. Qualcomm’s suggested revisions to the aeronautical mobile service “are based on unrealistic assumptions regarding satellite networks,” SIA said. They don’t provide for adequate enforcement of the limits necessary to protect the primary fixed satellite service, it said.
World satellite industry revenue rose 3.4 percent in 2013 to $195.2 billion, said a Satellite Industry Association report. The largest growth was in the satellite services segment, with a nearly $7 billion increase in revenue, SIA said in a news release Monday on its State of the Satellite Industry Report (http://bit.ly/1lVRo8c). SIA said that increase was driven by continued growth in consumer satellite television services. Manufacturing revenue reached $15.7 billion, but launch revenue dropped 7 percent, it said. Revenue from satellite ground equipment had a slight increase of 1 percent to $55.5 billion, SIA said. U.S. satellite market revenue grew 5 percent to $85.9 billion, with manufacturing reaching $10.9 billion mainly due to the delivery of a large number of high-value satellites for U.S. government customers, it said. Fixed satellite services worldwide remained flat, while mobile satellite services grew 6 percent, the report said. Commercially procured launches worldwide increased to 62, up from 59 launches in 2012, said SIA. “Government customers worldwide remained the major satellite launch revenue driver, reaching 70 percent of commercially-procured satellite launch revenues, up from 64 percent in 2012.” The U.S. had the largest share of the launch revenue, with more than 70 percent of the revenue coming from the launch of U.S. government satellites, it said. The report was prepared by The Tauri Group, which polled more than 80 satellite companies, SIA said.
The Satellite Industry Association called publication of rules which transfer export controls, including on satellites, from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the Commerce Control List a “truly comprehensive overhaul to the U.S. satellite export control system,” in an SIA news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/RMGEid). The final rules will be effective Nov. 10 (CD May 13 p12). The rules, which the State Department called interim, for USML Category XV will be effective June 27, State said in a Federal Register notice Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1ooReJC).
Glowlink Communications Technology and iDirect Government Technologies joined the Satellite Industry Association. IDirect, based in Herndon, Va., offers satellite IP products for critical communications, and Silicon Valley-based Glowlink provides equipment and services for carrier spectrum monitoring, interference prevention and other applications, SIA said in a news release (http://bit.ly/Nuxm7N).
Commercial communications satellites will carry TV and media coverage from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to an anticipated global audience of three billion people, the Satellite Industry Association said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1eUBwjL). Commercial satellite operators SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat and Telesat are providing satellite connectivity to broadcasters and news organizations “so they may transmit live video content of the events as they happen to locations around the world,” it said. NBC is relying on SES satellite capacity during its live coverage of the Olympics, SIA said. TV channels and service providers “have also booked almost 500 hours of satellite transmissions from Eutelsat Communications to bring around-the-clock coverage to viewers throughout Europe,” it said.
The Satellite Industry Association urged the FCC to consider a “cost-based rebalancing of regulatory fees as between earth station and space station licensees as part of its ongoing review of the regulatory fee structure,” SIA said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-140, 12-201 and 08-65 (http://bit.ly/1btKXC6). The apportionment of the regulatory fee burden between these categories is based on outdated information “that does not reflect significant streamlining of the space station licensing process,” it said. “As a result, the share of fees currently borne by space station licensees is too high, and the share borne by earth station licensees is too low.” This rebalancing will ensure that fees are assessed more accurately and fairly, it said.
The Satellite Industry Association applauded the passage of HR-3547, The Consolidated Appropriations Act, which included a provision to extend the commercial space launch indemnification. The three-year extension “ensures the continuation of a long-standing provision needed to help ensure the global competitiveness of U.S. companies,” SIA said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1b8GRz1). The provision continues a risk management regime requiring launch service providers to acquire private launch insurance against the possibility of third party damages in the event of a failure involving government or commercial satellites, it said. But it offers government indemnification “for any such damages in excess of the required private launch insurance limits,” SIA said.
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) Board of Directors elected on Jan. 14 Bill Weller of Space Systems/Loral to serve as chairman for the coming year, SIA said in a press release. The board also elected Stacy Fuller of DirecTV as vice chairman and Jennifer Manner of EchoStar as treasurer.
The Satellite Industry Association urged the FCC not to allocate the entire allotment of 1 percent rise-over-thermal to a secondary Aeronautical Mobile Service allocation if it decides to proceed with such as allocation. Doing so would be inconsistent with an International Telecommunication Union recommendation, “which makes it clear that the 1 percent allotment is for all non-primary sources interference and not any single interfering service,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-114 (http://bit.ly/IPF8qH). The filing recounts a meeting with members of the International and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology on Qualcomm’s proposal to implement a new secondary AMS allocation in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, it said. Since there are already other secondary services in various parts of the band, “and there is a realistic possibility of at least one future secondary service ... the proposed AMS should be allotted only a third of the 1% budget,” it said. SIA stressed the need for technical rules for any potential AMS service using realistic antenna gain-to-noise-temperature values for existing current and future fixed satellite services satellites, “and deriving actual and enforceable power limits on any new secondary service that are sufficient to keep the interference caused by this system below 0.33%,” it said.