Eutelsat/OneWeb: Looming Interference Protection Sunset Will Trigger Uncertainties

Eutelsat/OneWeb is warning the FCC that applicants in the second Ka-/Ku-band processing round and their pending applications are about to become effectively first-round systems. In a docket 21-456 filing Friday recapping meetings with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and aides to the other commissioners, Eutelsat/OneWeb said most of those second-round applications are pending. It said that if they're not approved this month, those second-round applicants won't have to deploy satellites before the interference protections sunset for the first processing round's satellites. That effectively makes those second-rounders first-round systems, it said. Eutelsat/OneWeb said the FCC's 2023 order doesn't explain why existing operators received a three-year reduction of their interference protections, from 10 to seven years, in 2023's non-geostationary orbit satellite spectrum sharing order. Eutelsat/OneWeb said the "inequitable" seven-year sunset exacerbates post-sunset spectrum sharing uncertainty. It said that after the sunset date, the FCC should require that only later-round systems that have fully deployed can enjoy co-equal sharing with first-round systems. OneWeb has a pending reconsideration petition for the sunset provisions in the 2023 order (see 2307210037).