Inmarsat’s September filing with the U.S. government seeking authorization to provide mobile satellite services (MSS) in the 2-gigahertz (GHz) band has brought accusations that the satellite operator is looking to stall the re-allocation of spectrum in that band.
Inmarsat filed a petition with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking authorization to provide MSS by 2010 using a spacecraft that will operate in the 2-GHz band. The proposed spacecraft is part of Inmarsat’s planned next-generation global system, which will focus on providing voice, data and multimedia MSS offerings. The spacecraft also will facilitate the restoration or establishment of communications networks in times of crisis.
In July 2001, the FCC authorized eight companies to use the 2-GHz band for MSS provided they meet certain satellite construction milestones. As the telecom sector suffered a downturn, six of the companies, including Inmarsat, dropped out of the proceedings. The remaining two companies, Terrestar Networks Inc. and ICO Satellite Management LLC, are seeking to have the available 40 megahertz of spectrum within the band designated for MSS to be allocated equally between them.
Inmarsat A Spoiler
Terrestar President and CEO Robert Brumley called Inmarsat a “spoiler” in the process of redistributing the abandoned spectrum and is calling on the FCC to deny Inmarsat’s petition. Inmarsat is looking to “slowdown the development of MSS to a pace that allows them to catch up, because they are admittedly behind,” Brumley told Satellite News.
Attorneys representing Terrestar called Inmarsat’s activities “anti-competitive,” and said the filing is a means for Inmarsat “to preserve its dominant position in the mobile satellite market by urging the FCC either to deprive [Terrestar] outright of the additional spectrum it needs to compete effectively or, if that fails, by having the agency greatly delay any further assignment of spectrum to” Terrestar. Such a move “will jeopardize the further financing and development of the [Terrestar] hybrid satellite/terrestrial system,” the attorneys said in a Sept. 14 letter to the FCC.
“My problem is we’ve got a business to run,” Brumley said. “To spin us out another year on an if or a maybe as to what our full [allocation] of spectrum is going to be, means that everything we have [designed] to be dependant on full capacity of that spectrum is going to have to be put on hold. That affects our ability to hit our milestones and our ability, potentially, to be as aggressive in this business as we’d like to be.”
No Ulterior Motive
Andrew Sukawaty, Inmarsat CEO, dismissed any claims that Inmarsat was attempting to play spoiler to the 2-GHz party.
Critics of Inmarsat’s filing “are missing the point,” Sukawaty told Satellite News. Inmarsat was forced to withdraw its original application for the spectrum for a variety of reasons, including restrictions imposed on the company by the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act, as well as the company’s development activity in the L-band spectrum. “We just came back [to the 2-GHz band] when we could,” he said.
Inmarsat also has challenged Terrestar’s and ICO’s need for the full amount of the spectrum. In an Aug. 15 filing with the FCC, Inmarsat notes that “despite failing to achieve any commercial success whatsoever, [Terrestar] and ICO request to be treated as special cases, for the ground rules to be materially changed in their favor, and for each of them to be cemented into a highly protected competitive position to the exclusion of any new entrants to the 2-GHz band. Inmarsat does not believe that granting any such request would improve the prospects of the American consumer receiving competitively priced, MSS-based wireless broadband services in the near future.”
–Gregory Twachtman
