TV Technology reports that the FCC has “tentatively concluded” that mobile satellite service (MSS) operators can begin offering their services to the nation’s 30 largest markets before all current tv broadcasters stop using their antiquated 2 GHz microwave links — even if there is a danger of interference.
The FCC proposed that this new rule should become effective Jan. 1, 2009.
The FCC’s plan was simple, make spectrum available by digitizing microwave gear used by tv news trucks — the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS).
That would make room for Sprint-Nextel’s cellular service (moved from the interfering 800 MHz band), as well as the new AWS band, and the new Mobile Satellite Service band. They could all fit in the 2 Ghz slot, just above today’s cellular phone services at 1.9 GHz.
The FCC implemented the top 30 markets rule as a safeguard against interference between the MSS and incumbent 2 GHz BAS licensees, which were to be relocated (at MSS expense) from 1990-2110 MHz to 2025-2110 MHz to make way for satellite uplink and ancillary terrestrial component operations (ATC).
The “Consensus Plan” also gave Sprint Nextel replacement cellular spectrum in that band. The government took (800 MHz) frequencies away from Nextel after it was discovered new cell towers interfered with police and fire radios.
The FCC has targeted most 800 MHz public-safety rebanding for completion by June 1, 2009, but Sprint Nextel says several are unlikely to complete rebanding by that date. Sprint is footing the bill for replacement of 2 GHz digital microwave equipment used by television stations, as per the terms of the Consensus Plan, to make space available in that band.
By digitizing television microwave gear, more bandwidth was freed up in the 2 GHz band. That provided space for Nextel cellular service, the new AWS band (for cellular providers T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon) and for Mobile Satellite Services.
But broadcasters have been slow to change.
On April 14, ICO Global Communications launched its North American geosynchronous satellite, ICO-G1. It’s using MSS frequencies that some broadcasters still use for terrestrial microwave links.
The FCC is soliciting comments on a timetable and market-by-market approach to facilitate the entry of MSS operators into the 2 GHz band.
- ICO Global Communications has successfully launched its new multimedia satellite. ICO is planning DVB-SH for mobile television to automobiles and mobile computers in the MSS band (2.0/2.1GHz).
- Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), plans to launch a competing MSS (2 GHz) geosynchronous satphone platform, MSV-1, late in 2009 with MSV-2 expected to follow in the third quarter of 2010.
- TerreStar aims to provide mobile broadband and satphone services in the L band (1.6 GHz) in a couple of years. In February, Harbinger teamed up with EchoStar and others to pour $300 million into the venture which aims to provide geosynchronous satphone service (with terrestrial repeaters). TerreStar-I will have an antenna almost 60 feet across with up to 500 dynamically-configurable spot beams.
The original 8 satphone carriers shared 40MHz of MSS spectrum, but only two carriers in the GEO space are left standing (with 20 MHz each); ICO and Mobile Satellite Ventures
MSV has a sister satellite system, Terrestar, using the 1.6 GHz (“L” Band). MSV, Terrestar and ICO all use one or two huge geosynchronous satellites, combined with terrestrial repeaters.
ICO and TerreStar say their satellites are designed with multiple spot beams that can operate independently, and thus concentrate signals to a radius of several hundred miles. They can avoid areas where there is potential interference.
The FCC noted that the spot beams could “provide service in many places while effectively avoiding BAS operations that are not yet relocated.” The FCC stated that the resulting market-by-market approach counter proposal to the top 30 market rule “would reduce the likelihood of interference between MSS and BAS,” though, it conceded, “interference between the two services would not be completely avoided.”
The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) oppose the rule change, as does Sprint.
“Entry of MSS operations into the spectrum before BAS relocation is completed would cause harmful interference to the incumbent operations in the 2 GHz band,” they concluded in a joint April 30 filing.
Sprint noted in its own April 30 comments to the FCC that ICO and TerreStar failed to clear incumbent operations from the spectrum “more than seven years after the commission first ordered them to do so.”
According to ICO, “Sprint and the broadcasters had represented that all along there were multiple factors that have led to these delays, and having the money in place didn’t seem to be one of them.”
TerreStar’s findings assumed receivers would be 19 km (about 12 miles) from a tower in predicting noninterference, a condition unrealistic for cities like New York, Chicago or Washington, D.C., (the ICO model uses a 15 km (9 mile) reference). TerreStar operates on much less power than the ICO system, although it operates at a lower frequency (1.6 GHz) and uses a larger satellite antenna (some 60 feet across).
Related space and satellite news on DailyWireless includes; ICO Deploys 40 Foot Antenna, ICO G-1 In Space, Sprint’s Walkie Talkie: 40 Cities, ICO Wants Its Mobile TV – via DVB-SH, Dish Network Testing DVB-SH, HughesNet’s Spaceway 3 Now Available, AMC-14: Killed by Lawyers?, Satellite Radio Merger Goes to FCC, Spot Beam Sats Multiply, Satphones: Merger Ahead?, Inmarsat + SkyTerra = Spectrum Sharing, AT&T Goes with FLO, What’s Dish Network Planning?, WiMAX TV from NextWave, Italy Testing DVB-SH Mobile TV, Mobile/Handheld TV: Killer App? and Mobile TV War at NAB 2007.
