by Gerald E. Oberst Jr.

Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are working on the licensing structure for the next generation of interactive satellite terminals. These terminals promise to bring broadband services, including Internet access, to millions of future customers.

In 1998, the FCC adopted a still-pending proposal to allow blanket licensing of fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations in the 18 GHz Ka-band. This approach would avoid the need to issue a separate, individual license for each consumer terminal. Meanwhile, in late January 2000, a working group of the European Conference of Post and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) also proposed to extend a series of licensing exemptions for satellite terminals in the 2 GHz and 18 GHz range.

Both the United States and Europe have already adopted various arrangements to exempt receive-only terminals from licensing. In 1986, the FCC extended this approach to transmit terminals as well, when it created a system for routine licensing of earth station networks, rather than the individual stations themselves, operating in the 12/14 GHz Ku-band range. This structure allowed operators to roll out networks of very small aperture terminals (VSATs) in the tens of thousands across the United States.

That VSAT blanket licensing approach was based on a single license for the entire network and reporting obligations so that the FCC kept generally aware of the development of the service. Without that arrangement, the VSAT market never would have flourished, but would have drowned in a morass of licensing red tape.

In 1998, the FCC proposed to apply a similar approach to a different sort of small antenna. The latest proposal would apply to a broad range of FSS terminals, for such services as broadband Internet access, video teleconferencing, distance learning and other interactive multimedia services.

The FCC recognized that traditional licensing would block fast and efficient implementation of large numbers of small FSS earth stations. Thus, the agency again proposed to rely on the blanket licensing approach. An important implication of this approach, however, is that it is virtually impossible to separate terrestrial services from ubiquitous networks of FSS terminals. To deal with this situation, the FCC redesignated the 18 GHz band (from 17.7 to 19.7 GHz) to separate terrestrial fixed services from most satellite earth station operations. The resulting separation provides dedicated spectrum within which the blanket license approach will work for the FSS networks.

On the other side of the Atlantic, it has been general policy in the European Union (EU) since at least the late 1980s to exempt receive-only terminals from licensing. The EU, however, covers today only 15 countries. The broader Europe, extending to 43 countries, is represented by the CEPT. Only in 1995 did CEPT adopt measures to exempt categories of radio equipment from licensing based on defined criteria.

Those criteria were spelled out in a recommendation from the European Radiocommunication Committee (ERC), a CEPT agency. Among the criteria are that the exempt terminals should not need individual frequency assignments and should pose little risk of harmful interference with other categories of radio equipment.

At that time, the ERC noted that free movement of radio equipment across Europe and resulting pan-European service could be greatly enhanced when all CEPT administrations exempt the same categories of equipment from licensing and use the same criteria.

One of the first ERC exemption decisions applied in 1997 to mobile satellite terminals for “big LEO” services, such as Iridium or ICO. The ERC adopted a series of similar exemptions in 1998 for other types of mobile terminals, as well as for terrestrial mobile handsets. In late 1999, ERC adopted a decision to exempt receive-only satellite earth stations from licensing (in effect recognizing a policy that the EU had adopted more than a decade earlier).

The latest pending ERC decision, and the one that parallels the FCC action, is to exempt satellite earth station terminals in the Ka-band. The ERC adopted a tentative decision in late January 2000 to exempt so-called satellite interactive terminals (SITs) and satellite user terminals (SUTs) in Ka-band, as well as VSATs in the 2 GHz range.

Controversy over this proposed decision arose when some administrations complained that the frequencies proposed could interfere with operations at airports. In response, the license exemption has been conditioned on power limits and some siting restrictions near airports. Other administrations believe the licensing exemption may conflict with their national legislation. Accommodations likely can be made for those countries as well, perhaps through a network license for the entire system.

This new series of ERC decisions will be debated through the first quarter of 2000. It could be adopted as early as March, after which CEPT administrations should implement it into national laws.

The regulators in Europe and the United States have chosen different paths to get to the same goal. The satellite industry now has to continue to press for that goal and argue for licensing exemption schemes for the (we hope) millions of terminals involved.

Gerry Oberst is a partner in the Brussels office of the Hogan & Hartson law firm. His email address is [email protected].