Dish/Echostar/FCC MiniFeud

[nelson61]

Dish had three FSS satellite licenses for satellites under construction and filed annual reports saying that everthing was on schedule. They stretched the process out to the last minute ( keeping the slots off the market) and then abandoned them. In the middle of all of it, they spun off a bunch of satellites to Echostar.

Echostar had a permit application pending for a C band satellite at 85-86W that FCC rejected early this week. Sure sounds like FCC is irritated.

Today, Echostar had resubmitted with the classic " it wasn't me" arguement.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/ibfsweb/ib.page.FetchAttachment?attachment_key=-166321

Excerpt

"Further, neither EchoStar nor DISH Network has “missed” milestones within the
meaning of the rule, nor have the two companies displayed a “pattern of obtaining licenses and
then surrendering them before a milestone deadline.”15 Rather, DISH Network surrendered three
discrete authorizations out of dozens of authorizations and constructed satellites within the DISH
Network fleet. It did so in a timely manner, and moreover, it demonstrated in each of its
surrender letters that the surrender was due to legitimate justifications.16"

 

[Smith P.]

Siamese company.

 

[DishSubLA]

Echostar / Dish aren't the only ones with such annoyance. Just about every company out there, Direct TV, SES Amrericom, has been in a similar position and claimed similar reasons. Often, all goes as planned and the FCC, like many other govt. agencies, allow for re-apps, and appeals, and rarely acts to deny them not does it act out of aggression. In other words, this is typical.