FCC to sell c band spectrum

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nelson61

nelson61

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40% of it is still being left for satellite usage.

They weren't using the full C-band anyway. There's been lots of empty orbital locations and transponder frequencies in the C-band for years. Taking away a full 60% of it is concerning though. There wasn't *THAT* much unused capacity amongst all the current satellites and used transponders. They're going to have to launch more satellites at more orbital locations and cut the amount of bandwidth channels are using.

We will probably see some networks switch to being fiber only, and a decrease in the number of wildfeeds as more of them switch to fiber only and don't use a satellite backup because there isn't going to be as much extra room for wildfeeds to use now. Renting transponder time for a wildfeed will get even more expensive. Channels will switch to using HEVC and lower bitrates. Now I wonder how they're going to go about ever upgrading any of these channels to 4K. They might distribute 4K versions of channels to the cable/satellite companies via fiber only now.

As was posted at Rick's:

I am however concerned at the impact this will have on the quantity of backhauls we see uplinked to the C-Band, as well as the various Latin America channels distributed on the Atlantic satellites. We may see a sharp reduction in the amount of wildfeeds using the C-Band as it now has to be repacked so tightly it doesn't leave available enough open transponders. In addition, the channels and feeds that are uplinked to the Atlantic satellites are intended primarily for the Latin American markets, so we may not see channels on those satellites being moved to non-impacted frequencies, and North Americans will no longer be able to receive them.

The last issue is the lack of compensation to the satellite companies. Why would any company want to spend money building additional satellites to cover the open orbital location slots when they just got robbed of their investment on their previously launched satellites? It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy a new satellite, and I don't see how the government is planning on financing the building of new satellites at additional orbital locations to make up for the considerable amount of capacity loss on the existing satellite orbital locations.
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Cosmo Blatz said:
Ouch! So who sells a prime focus standard Ku band lnb? Just thinking ahead.

nelson61 thanks for posting!
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Exactly why I have resisted getting a mesh dish. Investing in a dish that can't receive Ku signals well is silly. They've just stolen 60% of the C-band spectrum now so who knows what things will look like in a decade or two. I don't want to spend the time and effort putting up a C-band dish that can't also be used as a good Ku band dish.
 
C band is not under utilized everywhere and there are places where it is used for much more than video services. In Alaska, since the 70's it has provided critical telecommunications for long distance, and private line services throughout the state. There is no plan B, no extensive fiber routes to fall back on. In recent years broadband has been added also. Alaskans rely on the ENTIRE C band to keep remote villages connected, along with Kodiak, the Aleutian Islands, St. George Island, Diomede, etc. We also can't just use other satellites to supplement capacity, to cover the entire state the bird must be nearly due south of the state look angles are already in the single digits on the north slope. Fortunately it looks like the FCC is looking favorable upon an exemption for Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1211095006980/ATA Reply Comments C Band Reallocation.pdf
 
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907TECH said:
C band is not under utilized everywhere and there are places where it is used for much more than video services.
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Aren't the 137w and 135w slots now open? If so, these available slots are located at a similar angle for Alaska? These slots might be used to increase bandwidth availability for Alaskans? Hope you are exempted from this proposed auction! Good Luck!
 
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Hmm, should I replace my mesh or not? It would be kinda nice to have everything move to Ku but then there's that darn rain fade issue. Not so much around here though.
 
johnnynobody said:
Hmm, should I replace my mesh or not? It would be kinda nice to have everything move to Ku but then there's that darn rain fade issue. Not so much around here though.
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I think you are safe to get a c band dish or replace one. I doubt it's going away. It will be a re-pack deal like over the air went through. There was the subject of politics earlier in the thread.
The truth is this is politics. The government is taking approximately 300 mhz of the spectrum away.

Sent from our Pleadian star ship
 
Titanium said:
Aren't the 137w and 135w slots now open? If so, these available slots are located at a similar angle for Alaska? These slots might be used to increase bandwidth availability for Alaskans? Hope you are exempted from this proposed auction! Good Luck!
[/QUOTE
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Titanium said:
Aren't the 137w and 135w slots now open? If so, these available slots are located at a similar angle for Alaska? These slots might be used to increase bandwidth availability for Alaskans? Hope you are exempted from this proposed auction! Good Luck!
[/QUOTE

We are pretty sure n
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Titanium said:
If anything, we will need to up our game to bigger, better tuned dishes and terrestrial sheilding for the more demanding SNR and LNBs with hard cut band edge filters.
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It will become a hostile RF environment, maybe worse than the old days with AT&T TD2 microwave radio shots. I used to drag a dish on a trailer to sites to see if we had interference. Lost sales because of it. A very real concern. At least there will be no in band interference, whats left of the band anyway.
 
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nelson61 said:
Fighting over who gets the money

CNBC: Satellite stock Intelsat drops 40% after FCC 5G decision.
www.cnbc.com

Satellite stock Intelsat drops 40% after FCC 5G decision

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday that it will publicly auction off a valuable telecommunications asset,
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

Sent from S10 Plus
using the SatelliteGuys app!
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Not great news. Too bad the industry cannot use below 3700? Aren't their satellite spectrum that is used below? I know below 11700 is used.
 
Hi All,

FWIW...my two cents...
I think this spells the end of C band as we know it. While its not going away anytime soon, we will most likely see the spectrum slowly chipped away as 5G is replaced by 6G in about 5-10 years. China is currently researching 6G now and since this is an ego contest between the US and China, research like this will do nothing but escalate in the coming years. The loser here will be hobbyists like ourselves.
Personally I have 4g now and I find it fast enough for my mobile applications....HD video is smooth and download times are fast enough for my tastes. I don't need to be able to download 100 movies in 5 seconds....which proponents of 6G tout.
Anyway...we'll still have Ku to enjoy.

John
 
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JFOK said:
Hi All,

FWIW...my two cents...
I think this spells the end of C band as we know it. While its not going away anytime soon, we will most likely see the spectrum slowly chipped away as 5G is replaced by 6G in about 5-10 years. China is currently researching 6G now and since this is an ego contest between the US and China, research like this will do nothing but escalate in the coming years. The loser here will be hobbyists like ourselves.
Personally I have 4g now and I find it fast enough for my mobile applications....HD video is smooth and download times are fast enough for my tastes. I don't need to be able to download 100 movies in 5 seconds....which proponents of 6G tout.
Anyway...we'll still have Ku to enjoy.

John
Click to expand...
The interesting thing is, Wireless carriers have never fully maximized 4G LTE. We are theoretically supposed to get way faster download speeds and ping times than what we get.
It's just a gimmick to sell more new phones etc. Market hype.
I believe the real motivation behind 5G is two things: Wireless carriers have oversold their networks creating data traffic congestion.
The wireless phone business is flat. Nobody is excited anymore a out smartphones. They are an appliance now.

Sent from my SM-G955U using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
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truckracer said:
Wireless carriers have oversold their networks creating data traffic congestion.
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Confirmed. A Verizon sales rep told my brother, who works for Best Buy, that they yanked their unlimited prepaid hotspot plan because it was too popular.

truckracer said:
The wireless phone business is flat. Nobody is excited anymore a out smartphones. They are an appliance now.
Click to expand...

I don't have any numbers to back this up, but speaking personally, I am unexcited about the latest smartphones. There haven't been big enough design and function improvements to warrant another $1000 investment. Phone companies were banking on the annual phone refresh cycle to baseline their sales income and it isn't sustainable anymore. We're reached an innovation plateau with cell phones, just like we reached it with PC's years ago. Sure, you can add a bigger, faster processor, but is it really necessary? How about a 50 megapixel camera? Who needs that?
 
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Theory only works in a lab...not the real world
truckracer said:
The interesting thing is, Wireless carriers have never fully maximized 4G LTE. We are theoretically supposed to get way faster download speeds and ping times than what we get.
It's just a gimmick to sell more new phones etc. Market hype.
I believe the real motivation behind 5G is two things: Wireless carriers have oversold their networks creating data traffic congestion.
The wireless phone business is flat. Nobody is excited anymore a out smartphones. They are an appliance now.

Sent from my SM-G955U using the SatelliteGuys app!
Click to expand...

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
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