Rejecting an effort by the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association to overturn an earlier decision, the Federal Communications Commission last week reaffirmed its 2002 order allowing wireless cable operators to share the 12 GHz band with incumbent direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operators.
Supporting the FCC’s steadfastness, wireless cable hopeful Northpoint Technology said it was “delighted” with the commission’s decision. “It’s a great victory for us and we are proud of the effort that we have been able to make and that it’s been successful,” said CEO Sophia Collier.
Not so pleased, however, was SBCA President Andrew Wright. “We regret that the commission continues to disregard the interest of millions of direct broadcast satellite subscribers nationwide. [Last week’s] erroneous decision by the commission reinforces last year’s decision to ignore the independent test that conclusively demonstrated that allowing wireless cable providers to operate in the DBS spectrum would cause a ‘significant interference threat’ to current and future DBS subscribers.”
Wright told SATELLITE NEWS that SBCA would move ahead with a federal court case appealing the FCC’s original order granting terrestrial multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS) providers access to the DBS spectrum. “We are appealing the underlying decision that it is possible for wireless cable service to share without harmful interference with DBS,” he said. The case originally was filed in July last year, but it was held up while the FCC examined the SBCA’s petition for reconsideration.
“Ever since DBS was authorized in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, the FCC has made decision after decision indicating that it was not possible for a point-to-point or point-to- multipoint wireless service to share the band because it would cause too much interference with DBS. This decision that the FCC has reaffirmed is a total departure from that precedent. We believe that it is not possible for DBS to share spectrum band because of the interference it is going to cause to millions of DBS consumers.”
Wright argued that the interference test commissioned by the FCC and performed by the Mitre Corp. supports his association’s view that MVDDS use of the 12 GHz band would cause unacceptable interference (SN, April 30, 2001). “What the Mitre report said was that sharing might be feasible with a whole litany of expensive mitigation techniques,” he said. The FCC opted for power limits, rather than mitigation requirements, in its original order.
Wright summed up the DBS industry’s frustration over the FCC’s actions. “After a decade of the industry spending billions of dollars to get ourselves into a position where we are close to reaching our potential as a competitor to cable, for the FCC to suddenly reverse course and allow this kind of interference in our spectrum will make us less competitive.”
In the decision issued last week, the commission also rejected efforts by MDS America, a Stuart, Fla.-based MVDDS hopeful, to raise those power limits in rural areas. “We decline to modify the [power] limits imposed on MVDDS. Two key benefits of the adopted limits are that they are not susceptible to dispute because of their simplicity, and they effectively limit the potential for harmful interference to DBS when applied to all MVDDS transmission systems, no matter how configured,” the commission wrote.
SBCA supported this part of the decision: “We are pleased that the commission refused to compound [its] error by allowing even more interference by increasing the power limits for MVDDS.” –Fred Donovan
(Robert Udowitz, SBCA, 703/739-8351; Sophia Collier, Northpoint, 202/737-5711).
