[Satellite News 05-03-11] The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has requested meetings with regional C-band satellite operators to negotiate spectrum allocation so that the country’s television broadcast services can meet growing demands for mobile broadband, the ACMA announced in a report issued May 3.
    The report, “Towards 2020: Future Spectrum Requirements for Mobile Broadband,” identified a need to claim 300 megahertz (MHz) of additional C-band spectrum within the next nine years, which doubles the 150 MHz need established by the government agency in its previous five-year outlook issued in 2007. The 150MHz spectrum obtained from satellite operators would bring total spectrum allocation for mobile broadband use to approximately 1040MHz.
    The report also claims that AMCA would need to accommodate 1,000 times more data use in 2020 compared with 2007, driven by increases in smartphone use as well as estimated increases in the use of video downloads and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
    “Bands of 900MHz and 1.5GHz spectrum could be used for first five years, but a chunk of the higher frequency 3.7GHz to 4.2GHz bands would ultimately be needed to meet our full, 10-year requirements,” the AMCA said in the report. “We acknowledge difficulties in obtaining the 3.7GHz to 4.2GHz bands, which are currently used by satellite operators for receiving signals under standard C-band technology, primarily for television broadcasts.”
    The AMCA also outlined a need for satellite ground equipment in Australia’s urban areas, where spectrum demand is highest, but warned that the costs associated with ground infrastructure could, “cause an impasse between the regulator, satellite operators and telco carriers eager to expand their spectrum license portfolios,” the report said.
    The AMCA has held an extensive and informal spectrum dialog with regional satellite operators during the past few years, but formal discussions have yet to be held. With the AMCA now approaching operators armed with its needs outlined in a report, Australia satellite companies could see growing opportunities leading up to ACMA’s annual spectrum conference at the end of May.
    The report follows National Broadband Network Co.’s (NBN) plans to launch two Ka-band satellites that will deliver satellite services to approximately 7 percent of Australian households under the NBN, which were announced in July. NBN, a public-private entity created to oversee the construction of Australia’s broadband network, will spend up to $1 billion Australian dollars ($876.5 million) to build and launch the two Ka-band satellites. Rival operators in the private sector said the government-sponsored plan threatens their business models.
    NBN CEO Mike Quigley said the decision to invest in the two satellites was prompted by a lack of viable services in Australia and that having two satellites would allow the NBN to provide redundancy as well as maximize capacity and speeds. “We will cover the whole country with satellite. … There is simply nowhere near enough capacity in today’s satellite services over Australia to provide the sorts of services we are talking about — that is, close to the wireless service of 12 megabits-per-second at peak. With the new-generation satellites, you can get capacities in the 30s, 40s, even approaching 100 gigabits,” Quigley said.
    In February, Australian satellite pay-TV operator Austar reported disappointing subscriber growth in 2010 due to the challenging market environment created by the economic recession. Austar ended the year with less than 765,000 subscribers, adding about 22,500 subscribers in the 12-month period. The operator’s revenues increased 5 percent to $712.1 million compared with the same stage last year. The operator spent the end of February selling its 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz spectrum licenses to NBN for $120.2 million.
    Optus Satellite Director Paul Sheridan previously told Satellite News that the NBN could have the biggest effect on the telecoms/broadcast landscape in the next few years. “The NBN will have a major impact on how we progress. From our point of view, terrestrial and satellite technologies are complementary. Satellite has to be involved because of the vast distances in Australia — a fact that has been recognized by our government.
    While the AMCA continues its efforts with satellite bandwidth acquisition, the agency has made progress with LTE spectrum. In the report, ACMA officials said the regulator was in “advanced stages” to confirm the use of 2.6GHz spectrum for LTE services in Australia.
    “We hope to encourage use of 1.5GHz spectrum for LTE as part of our current, five-year spectrum outlook, a band in use only by Japanese incumbent telco NTT Docomo. Telstra, Vodafone Hutchison Australia and Optus have all either progressed or identified the 1.8GHz spectrum for LTE use locally,” ACMA said.