SES/Intelsat Deal Sees Suggestions of C-Band Conditions

Consideration of license transfers from Intelsat to SES as part of SES' planned $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2405310004) is on hold pending a review by Team Telecom, the FCC Space Bureau said. The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector is Team Telecom's formal name. In docket 24-267 comments this week, cable and satellite interests raised the idea of conditions related to New SES' C-band assets on the requested license transfers. Cable operators and programmers distribute video programming using Intelsat’s and SES’s C-band downlinks, and the FCC should ensure that they continue providing the same quality of service in the C band, said NCTA. It said SES and Intelsat assertions that cable operators can use terrestrial fiber for distribution are "untrue." The FCC, NCTA added, shouldn't accept commitments about New SES' use of C-band licenses that would jeopardize video distribution in that spectrum. SES and Intelsat each control just shy of 50% of the video content distribution by satellite market in the U.S., said Eutelsat/OneWeb, and the FCC should consider whether conditions are needed on SES/Intelsat to address competitive impacts. Eutelsat/OneWeb didn't suggest possible conditions. The SES transaction would seem to help ensure Intelsat can continue following the core principles set out in its 2001 reorganization from an international organization to a private company, said the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, which owned and operated Intelsat pre-2001. ITSO said Intelsat in recent years hasn't provided sufficient funding to the organization, and a better funding approach needs to be established.