PSSI Global Services Sues FCC Over C-Band Order 

Federal Communications Commission. Photo: FCC

PSSI Global Services is suing the FCC over its plan to reallocate the C-band spectrum for 5G services, arguing the order approved in February will “destroy” its special event satellite broadcast transmission services. The suit was filed April 28 in D.C. federal court. 

PSSI operates a fleet of more than 60 C-band and Ku-band vehicles and provides live event transmission, distribution and programming insert reception, including global satellite communication services. The company said that its Occasional Use (OU) services for events like the Academy Awards and the NFL Super Bowl are particularly in jeopardy. OU services use transportable earth stations, which require satellite Line-of-Sight (LOS) access and transponder frequency clearance to connect with a particular satellite and transponder.

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“The demand for such programming will not change; only the supply of available bandwidth to provide adequate coverage will change under the rules as adopted in the Report and Order, which eliminate 60% of the C-band. That which can already be difficult will become impossible,” PSSI said. 

The company warned that the FCC’s reallocation of bandwidth can result in the “complete functional loss” of available and usable OU satellite transponder capacity for its customers.