International Bureau Working Toward AMSS Rules
FCC action on a longstanding proposal to create Ku-band rules for the aeronautical mobile satellite service is in the works at the International Bureau, said commission officials and industry executives. The rules -- expected to resemble rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations and earth station on vessel in the same band -- would aid the inclusion of satellite broadband devices when airplanes are manufactured, said an industry executive. The FCC put out a rulemaking notice to set rules for the Ku-band service in 2005 but it has received sparse attention from industry, commission records show.
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Boeing has requested updates. The proposed rules should be adjusted for realities of the technology that have changed since the notice, Boeing said in meetings with the FCC, ex parte filings show. For instance, the agency should get rid of a rule to require an equal percentage of network transmit power for each user of the service, the company said. That rule was included before sales were available to multiple aircraft sizes, the company said. The provision would mean inefficient use of the spectrum, said Boeing.
The International Bureau is “actively working” on this issue, said an agency official. The issue has been moved to the back-burner in recent years, partly because so few parties have pushed to see AMSS dealt with, said the industry executive. Other providers of satellite-based aeronautical broadband, such as ViaSat and Row44, can provide their services other ways, such as through individual waivers or experimental licenses, so rules for AMSS haven’t been a major priority. Boeing’s interest in the rules related to its Connexion broadband service, now little used, the ability to include broadband capability in each plane under established rules would be benefit the company, the executive said.
Rules for the service would allow Boeing and others to install satellite broadband equipment when a plane was manufactured and without case-by-case approval from the FCC, said the industry executive. Most broadband now is added after-market, increasing the expense of offering airborne broadband, said the executive.
Boeing is certainly ready for movement on the issue. The company “supports the FCC action on the long-pending Aeronautical Mobile-Satellite Service proceeding,” Boeing said. “Approval of these regulations would promote development of more AMSS services and therefore greater broadband service availability for airlines and their customers. By improving the regulatory status of this service, there is also the greater possibility of implementing operational capabilities to the cockpit and more protection from harmful interference -- on par with other satellite services being delivered to mobile customers.”