talk Satellite

With C-Band issues still ongoing, we now see a grab for Ku-Band. Once again the satellite industry has begun to pull together to combat the threat of spectrum competition.

For many of us this latest Ku-Band issue is annoying and frustrating, for others it will mean countless man hours redirected away from running their core business, and of course there are those whose service could be lost.

How best can we the satellite industry defend this and future spectrum issues. What are the real spectrum requirements for sustainable satellite service growth, and do we now need to actively and aggressively acquire spectrum to protect our future?

Wherever administrations have allowed BWA services to use the C-band spectrum, there have been massive interruptions of satellite services.  Interference with radars and microwave links, which also operate in these frequencies, is likely.  Satellite operations in places including Australia, Bolivia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa have already been negatively affected.   Other national administrations can and should avoid repeating this costly mistake. BWA services cannot co-exist with satellite, where is the solution?

Delegations from every nation of the world prepare to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, for the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), where they will make crucial spectrum-allocation decisions. The Wi-Max / Satellite C-band issue is almost unprecedented in its importance. Whatever the outcome in Geneva, the satellite industry will still have to live in a world with Wi-Max, the decision at the WRC should set out the ground rules, but this may not be an end to the matter…