DirecTV misinterpreted an FCC rule regarding orbital slots.

[Scott Greczkowski]

DirecTV misinterpreted an FCC rule regarding orbital slots.
By Jeffrey Krauss, President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy

It seems that DirecTV made a major blunder in interpreting an FCC technical rule, and as a result lost its place in line for a valuable broadcasting satellite slot.

I last wrote about the new 17 GHz DBS band in October 2007. At that time, the FCC had just adopted rules and decided Jeffrey Kraussto give the already-filed applications the top priority. Those applications were from DirecTV, EchoStar, Pegasus and Intelsat. Since then, a new applicant, Spectrum Five, arrived on the scene and challenged DirecTV for the valuable slot at 103 degrees – and won.

Read the rest at CAPITAL CURRENTS: Oops!

 

[rad]

I wonder if the definition of 'clear sky' was spelled out to specify what it meant when DirecTV submitted the paperwork? As mentioned in the piece I see a long legal battle over this.

 

[JosephB]

I'm willing to bet that this ends up with DirecTV being able to re-amend their filing and gaining their priority. Obviously 'clear sky' wasn't clearly defined, and that seems like a good compromise solution.

Regardless, who is this Spectrum Five, and how viable are they? How far out are these licenses from being granted, and does Spectrum Five have money, a satellite, a plan, etc?

 

[Van]

Regardless, who is this Spectrum Five, and how viable are they?

[ame=http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS265US265&q=Spectrum+Five]Spectrum Five - Google Search[/ame]

Enjoy

 

[JosephB]

Yeah, that doesn't provide very much information. Just wondering if anyone has any synopsis of who they are. One of the articles I read said they would put spot beams on the top 20 metros. I think it's very late in the game to try to knock DirecTV or Dish off their perches. I think to be successful, there's going to have to be some differentiation. I'd like to think equipment (Tivos, etc) but that can only get you so much business. There's room for a service that focuses on movies as much as DirecTV focuses on sports. Think of a service that has every single movie channel in HD, plus TCM, AMC, etc in HD.

 

[jcrandall]

Interesting snafu, but since they are already using 103, for almost two years now, I doubt end users will ever see any change from this.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

I suspect it refers to the BSS band, on which Directv ran some tests using D12.

 

[dwrats_56]

I suspect it refers to the BSS band, on which Directv ran some tests using D12.

D11, D12 launches later this year from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.