SES Voices Concern About Spectrum Frontiers Earth Station Rules

Draft FCC proposed limits on satellite earth stations operating in the 28 GHz band under its spectrum frontiers NPRM could have unintended consequences, SES officials including Petra Vorwig, senior legal and regulatory counsel, told staffers for Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-177. It said the NPRM -- which would propose to limit the satellite industry to one earth station per county -- would let the location be set by the first applicant in the county and would ban earth stations where the 200-meter surrounding radius overlaps with 0.1 percent of the county's population. Such an approach might mean more earth stations heading to higher-population areas, where it's easier to map out that 0.1 percent threshold, SES said, saying the 200-meter radius is too small to accommodate more than one earth station. The company also voiced concerns that grandfathering only 28 GHz earth stations licensed before July 14 would put its investments in its SES-15 satellite -- scheduled for a Q2 launch -- "at significant risk," and grandfathering status should be extended to earth stations applied for before July 14, or at least to earth stations with applications accepted for filing by then.