Satellite

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that explores ways to enable pay-tv providers (multichannel video programming distributors in regulatoryspeak), such as cable and satellite providers, to communicate with their subscribers in more efficient and less costly ways. Specifically, the Notice proposes to allow cable operators to send general written notices to subscribers by email, as long as they use a verified email address and comply with other consumer safeguards.

AT&T and Time Warner said an explosion of online programming has spawned a “golden age for television—and for consumers,” in its first court filing countering government claims that their planned merger would stymie competition and hurt customers. AT&T, in a formal written answer to the lawsuit, said the video marketplace is changing quickly and is “intensely competitive,” and that nothing about the Time Warner deal would harm that. AT&T said online rivals like Netflix and Amazon were spending billions of dollars on developing and streaming video content, and that leading tech c

The Justice Department is encouraging AT&T to address antitrust officials’ concerns about the $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner before the Nov. 23 Thanksgiving holiday or face a lawsuit to block the deal. The Justice Department wants to keep AT&T, the biggest US satellite-TV provider, from gaining Time Warner cable networks like TNT and CNN and then withholding their programming from competitors such as Comcast. AT&T has said it has no incentive to do that.

As the Justice Department prepares for a legal showdown with AT&T over its $85 billion bid for Time Warner, analysts are debating whether the acquisition has potential harms for consumers and business competition that could sink the deal in court. One central concern at Justice is that AT&T could seek to deny other providers of TV and Internet, such as Comcast and Verizon, access to Time Warner's programming, and that it could prevent the rise of new technologies aimed at delivering content to consumers. Time Warner owns a substantial library of content. Under AT&T's control, th

[Commentary] As nearly all usable radio spectrum has been allocated to particular uses and assigned to particular users, shifting spectrum toward modern uses almost certainly requires taking from one use or user to give to other uses and users. Such spectrum repurposing need not be contentious and is often successful. The recent $41 billion AWS-3 spectrum auction, the largest-grossing auction in history, involved spectrum repurposed from Federal government incumbents to mobile wireless providers. Yet, success is not guaranteed.

Spectrum, like land, is typically “zoned” to particular uses that play nice together. For instance, a relatively low-powered satellite signal might be drowned in a sea of high-powered, land-based cellular signals. Like small and big dogs being kept separate at a dog park, different types of radio signals are managed to mitigate conflict using technical means such as power limitations and boundaries between interfering frequencies or assigning users and uses varying degrees of priority. Before one can reassign satellite spectrum to terrestrial wireless broadband use, therefore, one must seek permission from the FCC: terrestrial services are prone to interfering with satellite signals, so an approval requires a demonstration that interference with others is not a problem.

[Dr. George S. Ford is Chief Economist of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies]

The Federal Communications Commission has granted an experimental license for Project Loon, led by Google's parent company Alphabet, to help provide emergency cellular service in Puerto Rico.

“More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, millions of Puerto Ricans are still without access to much-needed communications services,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “That’s why we need to take innovative approaches to help restore connectivity on the island. Project Loon is one such approach. It could help provide the people of Puerto Rico with access to cellular service to connect with loved ones and access life-saving information. I’m glad the FCC was able to grant this experimental license with dispatch and I urge wireless carriers to cooperate with Project Loon to maximize this effort’s chances of success.” Project Loon is a network of balloons that provides connectivity to users on the ground. Now that the experimental license has been approved, it will attempt to initiate service in Puerto Rico. Project Loon obtained consent agreements to use land mobile radio (LMR) radio spectrum in the 900 MHz band from existing carriers operating within Puerto Rico.

Thousands of new satellites are expected to be launched into low-Earth orbit in the coming years to provide high-speed broadband, and the projects have caused concern for experts and government officials who worry about a worsening space debris problem. As the Federal Communications Commission considers satellite applications from SpaceX, OneWeb, Boeing, and others, Sens Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) senators asked the FCC to coordinate with other agencies to prevent space debris.

[Commentary] By launching 11,943 satellites SpaceX will do to telecoms what WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger did to SMS and in doing so capture a $1tn+ business — and there’s fringe benefits for Tesla.

What SpaceX are actually seeking is to replace every broadband and communications provider on the planet, by cutting out the middle man of land-based networks that stand between you and the internet. In doing so they will be essentially competing with every communications provider in the world — a business valued at over a trillion dollars. Forget about poor communities in Africa for a second: this is a pitch to replace physical fibre/cable connections in modern industrialised economies But a few questions arise from this including the big one: mobile phones. Will the plan be to have mobile phones work directly with satellites overhead? Is that even possible? Or will there be a hybrid approach — provide broadband to physically static locations and work from there?

[Gavin Sheridan is the Founder and CEO of Vizlegal.]

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an updated regulatory framework to facilitate the delivery of broadband services through satellite constellations. The action paves the way for greater broadband offerings in the United States, particularly in remote and rural areas. The FCC updated, clarified and streamlined the current rules governing non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems to better reflect current technology and promote additional operational flexibility.
Specifically, the Report and Order:
Amends the Table of Frequency Allocations to better accommodate NGSO and geostationary satellite operations in the Ka-band (20/30 GHz);
Streamlines the NGSO milestone rules for deployment and eliminates the international geographic cover requirements to provide greater flexibility to NGSO FSS operators, and
Adopts a new threshold to characterize circumstances where–absent a coordination agreement between operators—a default mechanism will govern spectrum sharing
between operators.

Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to surround the Earth with thousands of internet-beaming satellites is encountering turbulence from regulators concerned about interference with competing systems. SpaceX, the rocket startup Musk runs, filed for permission for its constellation of refrigerator-sized satellites late in 2016. Selling broadband from orbit is a key part of how SpaceX plans to make money beyond its original rocket-launching service. But the Federal Communications Commission dealt the project a setback Sept 26 with a decision that could force power reductions on SpaceX satellites, and potentially limit the spectrum they can use, making them less effective.

The regulator on a 5-0 vote decided to defer in part to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, on how these new satellite systems need to coordinate and share spectrum. The decision was one part of a broad suite of rules intended to help clear the way for satellite constellations. The fleets “could be a gateway to more broadband competition, which benefits all consumers,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said as the agency voted at a meeting in Washington.