FCC Satellite Division Settles Spectrum Five and Dish Issues at 119 degrees WL

[Scott Greczkowski]

FCC Satellite Division Settles Spectrum Five and Dish Issues at 119 degrees WL

Spectrum Five LLC had opposed Dish Operating LLC's request to modify Dish's license for EchoStar 7 to specify operations at 118.8 degrees west longitude (WL) instead of 118.9 degrees WL. Spectrum Five requested a declaratory ruling allowing it to serve the U.S. market with a proposed Broadcast Satellite Service (BSS) space station at 119.25 degrees WL, very close to EchoStar 7.

Last week the FCC International Bureau's Satellite Division issued a Declaratory Ruling (DA 12-1671) allowing Spectrum Five U.S. market access from 119.25 degrees WL using 17.3-17.7 GHz (space-to-Earth) and 24.75-25.25 GHz (Earth-to-space).

In a Memorandum Opinion and Order (DA 12-1670) released the same day, the FCC granted Dish Operating LLC's request to use 118.8 degrees WL for EchoStar 7 and denied, in part, and dismissed, in part, as moot, Petitions to Dismiss or Deny the applications filed by Spectrum Five. The Satellite Division found “allowing DISH to operate the EchoStar 7 Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service space station at the 118.8 degrees W.L. orbital location will not cause impermissible interference to other radiocommunication systems, and will serve the public interest.” DBS satellites use 12.2-12.7 GHz (space-to-Earth) and 17.3-17.8 GHz (Earth-to-space).Note that Spectrum Five is now allowed to serve the U.S. using 17.3-17.7 GHz (space-to-Earth) from a location less than half a degree away.

Read the rest at http://www.tvtechnology.com/distrib...um-five-and-dish-issues-at--degrees-wl/216087
​

 

[mike123abc]

I thought the Spectrum Five venture had already died. I guess they are still out there objecting to everything Dish does...

 

[nelson61]

Nice to see Dish/Echostar getting their slot rights for E7 cleaned up . Gets sticky with spare satellites floating around up there.

Spectrum can be compared to a bunch of patent trolls. They enter the contest for slot rights and pick up some for minimal cost and then file lots of paper to keep the licenses active. But, they have never built a satellite. The FCC is on to them and revoked one of their licenses a couple of years ago because they submitted a bunch of pictures of unusable satellite parts picked up on the second hand market as evidence of progress on satellite construction. They will likely lose the remaining licenses for failure to launch in the FCC specificed time frame.

Re : 17Ghz; Echostar canceled all their 17 ghz satellite licenses and told the FCC to calculate the penalties and they would write a check. Directv is the only one out there that seems to have a serious intent of proceeding with that spectrum and they are concentrating their efforts around their existing slots about 20 degrees east of 119w.

 

[Tampa8]

....Spectrum can be compared to a bunch of patent trolls. They enter the contest for slot rights and pick up some for minimal cost and then file lots of paper to keep the licenses active. But, they have never built a satellite.....

I had wondered what it is they do...

 

[navychop]

S5 built a stealth satellite so good no one can find it.