Spectrum Five news

[Voyager6]

I was checking to see if Spectrum Five submitted it's Critical Design Review to the FCC and found this. Looks like Spectrum Five is looking to provide service from 119, 103 and 118.
FCC INTERNATIONAL BUREAU

Spectrum Five LLC seeks authority to provide service to the U.S. market through a Netherlands-authorized satellite from the 118.8 W.L. orbital location using the 17/24 GHz Broadcasting Satellite Service band.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/ibfsweb/ib.page.FetchAttachment?attachment_key=679960

On November 19, 2008, David Wilson, President of Spectrum Five, LLC
(“Spectrum Five”), met with Chairman Kevin Martin and Charles Mathias to
discuss Spectrum Five’s above-referenced pending petitions for declaratory ruling
to provide service from the nominal 119° W.L. and 103° W.L. orbital locations
using the 17/24 GHz Broadcast-Satellite Service (“BSS”). Mr. Wilson’s comments
were consistent with the arguments raised in these pending petitions.

No notice yet of a petition for a time extension or if the Critical Design Review was submitted.

I tried to update the E11 thread but I was not permitted to do so.

 

[porkshopping]

Notice they have former FCC Chm Wiley as their outside counsel. He's as good as it gets in this space. Spectrum Five already has a 114.5 CONUS+ slot (which was the first CONUS+ slot in a decade). Having additional capacity would make them a real player. These slots are a rarity. Notice that Pegasus was awarded the 115? Looks like the reverse band awards are coming out...

 

[nelson61]

Notice they have former FCC Chm Wiley as their outside counsel. He's as good as it gets in this space. Spectrum Five already has a 114.5 CONUS+ slot (which was the first CONUS+ slot in a decade). Having additional capacity would make them a real player. These slots are a rarity. Notice that Pegasus was awarded the 115? Looks like the reverse band awards are coming out...

Ahh -- Wiley "Fox". Now I understand why the competition complaints concerning FCC's giving Spectrum an exemption from regs regarding complete filing of interference data were ignored.

 

[Stargazer]

Is Pegasus still around? I know they were during Primestar days and thought they went away with Primestar.

 

[nelson61]

Spectrum Five has some real pull at FCC. They just got Directv's application for a 17 GHz license at 102 thrown out on a technicality and are next in line for a license in that general area. Somebody must be buying lots of lunches.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-87A1.pdf

 

[digiblur]

Ouch! Where is D12 bird going now?

 

[Voyager6]

Spectrum Five has some real pull at FCC. They just got Directv's application for a 17 GHz license at 102 thrown out on a technicality and are next in line for a license in that general area. Somebody must be buying lots of lunches.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-87A1.pdf

If there is an appeal process, you can bet that D* will go all out. It's amazing that the FCC will accept the arguments of a company that does not have any operational satellites over D*. The $$$ must really be flowing in DC right now.

 

[rocatman]

Ouch! Where is D12 bird going now?

I believe these are reverse DBS slots. I thought D12 was a Ka band satellite.

 

[HDRoberts]

I believe these are reverse DBS slots. I thought D12 was a Ka band satellite.

Yes, D12 is another KaLow band satellite, nearly identical to D10 and D11.

The frequencies listed are 17/24Ghz. This is BSS. I thought that was different than reverse DBS.

 

[rocatman]

Yes, D12 is another KaLow band satellite, nearly identical to D10 and D11.

The frequencies listed are 17/24Ghz. This is BSS. I thought that was different than reverse DBS.

The 17/24 GHz frequencies are what are commonly referred to as "reverse DBS". In addition, it was mentioned that Spectrum Five had applied for a reverse DBS license at 118.8 W but I believe I read somewhere that Ciel had already applied for a license there for Canada so there could be an interference problem there. I am not sure what country would have priority, Canada or the Netherlands into the U.S. but I would have to guess that the Canadian application would have priority.

 

[HDRoberts]

The 17/24 GHz frequencies are what are commonly referred to as "reverse DBS". In addition, it was mentioned that Spectrum Five had applied for a reverse DBS license at 118.8 W but I believe I read somewhere that Ciel had already applied for a license there for Canada so there could be an interference problem there. I am not sure what country would have priority, Canada or the Netherlands into the U.S. but I would have to guess that the Canadian application would have priority.

I see, it downlinks on the existing DBS uplink frequencies (17.3-17.8Ghz), but uplinks on a different frequency (24ghz instead of 12). I thought both were shared with reverse DBS.

 

[digiblur]

I believe these are reverse DBS slots. I thought D12 was a Ka band satellite.

Yep, you are right. I didn't read the PDF since I was on the road.

 

[porkshopping]

Spectrum Five

Isn't that 1GHz of spectrum that Spectrum Five will have between the two slots? How much capacity does the entire current DTV fleet have? It's got to be less than that. If Spectrum Five gets the slot that would be pretty special. if they get the slot at 119 and in addition to its position at 114.5 and likely 103, Spectrum Five has also registered full-CONUS reverse band slots @ 119, 115, 111, 107, 99, and 95 degrees WL. That is a helluva lot of capacity. How does DTV and DISH feel about that, or for that matter, CATV companies and RBOCs? They are probably happy that a lot of capacity is coming to the market.

It doesn't take a PhD at JPL to figure out that, with no legacy terrestrial infrastructure to contend with, Spectrum Five will be able to roll out some very efficient and fast (400mpbs stationary and 100 in vehicle) service, lots of wholesale capacity, lots of backhaul for mobile networks or all of the above. They've stated that their first bird flies in 2010.

As for priority between Canada and Netherlands -- how does that work? Both countries are in Region 2 (Netherlands has a presence with the Dutch Antilles). Aren't they equal vis a vis international rights and wouldn't it come down to first come first served?

 

[mike123abc]

DBS slots are 500MHZ, the Ka is 1GHZ

One has to wonder how they are going to solve rain fade at 17GHZ...

 

[Stargazer]

Maybe that is what is needed, another competetor to Dish/Direct. The thing is, locals will be important to get a lot of the market. Thats a lot of work to get infrastructure setup in a lot of markets. I can see a lot of pissed off retailers taking interest in a new company for those wanting another company as an option to switch to when they give some really good offers. I hope its not another "VoOm"

 

[porkshopping]

Voom had a LOT less spectrum than Spectrum Five has and Voom was only focused on the NE (please correct me if I'm wrong) and 500Mhz (114.5) + 500 Mhz 103 = 1GHz. My statement didn't have anything to do with Ka vs Ku -- total spectrum was my point. Those first two slots are big and they have a lot of other filings. S5 has the ability to go retail and wholesale with that amount of spectrum. Does the board only put that in the perspective of DTV or DISH or what if ATT or VZ, T-Mobile, Sprint, QCOM, or a new entrant like Naspers, Telecom Italia, America Movile, etc. controlled that (potentially up to 2+ GHz). That changes the landscape of DBS in North America. This isn't only realistic, but probable given the nature of the asset. Comment?

 

[digiblur]

Correct me if I am wrong but if I remember right, someone was discussing the DirecTV KA birds and saying the ratio of GHZ bandwidth to actual video bandwidth was a lot less in the KA spectrum.

 

[HDRoberts]

I don't know if anyone knows for sure. I know Ka is more susceptible to rain fade, thus has to take that into account for FEC. I have never seen the Ka FEC made public, but it has to be there. On the other hand, they divided up the bandwidth into fewer transponders, which supposedly gives more total usable bandwidth.

 

[VinceT3]

didn't echostar purchase the 17ghz range as part of the DTV sale? how could they have 17ghz if echostar owns it at this point?

 

[nelson61]

didn't echostar purchase the 17ghz range as part of the DTV sale? how could they have 17ghz if echostar owns it at this point?

The 17 GHz is a complete new band, just like the FSS 11.7-12.2 and BSS 12.2-12.7 bands and the KA band. There are no satellites providing this band at this time. Each county has specific slots for each band per ITU agreements to avoid interference. There was a pile of litigation regarding rights to slots and it ended in FCC ruling that foreign licensed providers could provide service into the United States, provided that the US had reciprical rights. Spectrum is using licenses from the Netherlands to obtain slots and provide service to the Dutch Antilles islands in the Carribean. Then they apply for rights to also cover the US. They say no problem, the US can beam anything they want into the Antilles market and thus they have equal rights in the US market. It then proceeded on to a horserace with FCC saying that license rights are deterimined by first filing dates and with lawyers parked outside the FCC offices and crowding thru the door to get first filings. Sure seems like a crazy way to run a business Only a bunch of lawyer could have dreamed this up.