by Gerry Oberst

Outsiders could suspect that the satellite field uses its own private language to make sure the industry keeps a mystique of its own. A short review of the acronyms used in the regulatory field, especially in Europe, would strongly support that suspicion.

We wrote about the constantly shifting picture of satellite acronyms last year in this column ("Changing Names and Faces," Via Satellite, March 2002). The names have continued to change, however, and if anything are more complicated.

Some of the most basic shorthand terms are based on definitions of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) radio regulations (RR, which used to be the "simplified" radio regulations, which were anything but simple). Thus, the industry relies on a series of acronyms such as Fixed Satellite Service (FSS), Broadcast Satellite Service (BSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS). When these satellites provide television broadcasts over FSS Ku-band they are known as direct-to-home (DTH) service, but when the satellite is a BSS bird the service is known as direct broadcast satellite (DBS). Beyond those "standard" services, the ITU rules contain a series of other lesser-known services, Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service (AMSS), Radionavigation-Satellite Service (RDSS) and Earth Observation Satellite Service (EESS). There is even an Amateur Satellite Service, which curiously uses no acronym.

In the satellite world there are the BATSAT, SNOE, GOMS and GOES, which you must look up for yourself. We also like the BLUESAT, HUTSAT and CUBESAT, and there allegedly is even a DumSat, SurfSat and a MySat.

There is a transatlantic divide over some satellite names: the Galileo satellite program in the United States explores Jupiter, while the European Galileo system may one day survey the Earth. In Europe, ESA is the European Space Agency, while in the United States it is the Eastern Surfing Association, the Ecological Society of America and, until recently renamed, the Eastern Sunbathing Association (now the American Association for Nude Recreation). NASA, however, seems mainly to have avoided this plague of similar acronyms, although there are a few.

The main satellite organizations have their own acronyms. The U.S.-based Satellite Industry Association is the SIA. In Europe, the Global VSAT Forum, or GVF focuses on international matters, the European Satellite Operators Association, or ESOA, handles high-level policy matters, and the Advanced Satellite Mobile Task Force works with its unwieldy ASMF-TF acronym. The Satellite Action Plan Regulatory Group (SAP REG) changed its name from the "regulatory working group" because the RWG acronym was difficult for French speakers to pronounce.

The regulators, of course, cause the biggest confusion. The European Conference of Post and Telecommunication Administrations is known by its French-language acronym, i.e., CEPT. The main CEPT agency in the telecoms field used to be the European Radiocommunications Committee, or ERC, but we noted in last year’s column that it was renamed the Electronic Communications Committee, the ECC. This continues to cause confusion, because the European Commission in Brussels holds increasing jurisdiction over the same radio spectrum issues, leading to debates between the ECC and the EC. Do not forget that the European Union also is known as the European Community, or EC, as well.

The CEPT’s ECC created a working agency in Copenhagen which used to be the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) but which has been renamed in the last few months to the European Communications Office (ECO), which sponsors studies and reports to the ECC and often works with the EC.

The ITU structure creates its own set of incomprehensible acronyms. The satellite industry has a long-term and continuing concern over delays in the ITU processing of satellite filings for orbital slots. The ITU response was in 2001 to create a committee called the Satellite Backlog Action Group, but how can anyone treat seriously an entity known as the SAT BAG? The more grandiosely named Intersector Coordination Group on Satellite Matters, or ICG-SAT, has almost as many letters in its acronym as people who attended its last meeting.

Preparation for world radiocommunication conferences (WRCs, which used to be WARCs) is also complicated in Europe. The CEPT’s CPG (Conference Preparatory Group) prepares ECPs (European Common Positions) for review at the CPM (Conference Preparatory Meeting, which is really not a meeting) in order to negotiate over WRC agenda items.

How to cut through this terrain? A 1995 NOAA newsletter (that’s the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) claimed that an employee had put together a list of about 4,000 commonly used acronyms. The list apparently is not on the Web and the NOAA newsletter anyway did not inspire great confidence by misspelling the word "acronmyns" in its article. It appears at the end of the day that we must muddle through, continue to invent new terms to confuse the outsiders, and keep our acronyms churning.

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