Leave C-Band Alone in WRC Spectrum Recommendations, FCC Asked
The U.S. shouldn’t recommend that the C-band be examined for other possible uses by an upcoming international conference on spectrum, said broadcasters, cable programmers and operators, and satellite companies. They said in filings that the FCC shouldn’t adopt an advisory committee’s recommendation for the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) that a swath of spectrum including that satellite band be looked at for mobile broadband wireless access (BWA). Instead, many of the filings said another proposal, which excludes the spectrum between 3700 MHz and 4200 MHz that’s used for the C-band, should be adopted.
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SES World Skies and Starz Entertainment, NCTA, NPR and a group of 10 broadcast and cable programmers said the working group shouldn’t adopt proposal A. It calls for studies of additional spectrum between 400 and 6000 MHz. Plan B, backed by the FCC filings, identifies spectrum between 400 MHz and 3400 MHz for study. The comments were posted Friday and Monday to docket 04-286. Information on the advisory group is at www.fcc.gov/ib/wrc-12.
The U.S. stance at the WRC meeting “should recognize the significant interference issues associated with operating BWA systems in the C-Band,” and “limit the consideration of potential additional spectrum” to that in proposal B, NCTA said. “Almost every national cable programming network and many regional networks are uplinked to C-Band” fixed satellite service satellites, the association said. “Proposal B recognizes that the signals of C-Band satellites are highly susceptible to interference at reception sites, such as those located at cable headends, and would not be compatible with multitudes of mobile BWA devices transmitting in the C-Band receive frequencies. In fact, numerous studies, some in connection with previous WRCs, have reached this same conclusion."
The Concerned Operators of TV Program Networks highlighted the importance of that band, too. Besides cable systems, it’s used by DBS and subscription-video providers and TV stations, said the group of programmers. Those comments were signed by the ABC, CBS and Fox broadcast networks, Discovery Networks, Turner Broadcasting System and Viacom and individual cable channels including HBO and Showtime. “The extensive C-Band infrastructure used to distribute a vast array of information and entertainment programming to consumers could be subject to crippling interference” if frequencies used to get C-Band service were used for BWA devices, the filing said. “The ubiquity of C-Band satellite reception points for video content throughout the world makes typical interference avoidance practices such as coordination requirements or exclusion zones around earth station facilities impractical for mitigating interference from mobile transmitters."
SES World Skies also urged the FCC to limit the search for mobile broadband spectrum to below 3400 MHz, “where the search is more likely to yield useful results,” the satellite operator said. The spectrum search should focus on underused spectrum in which terrestrial services can “feasibly share with existing operations,” which is not the case in the C-band, said SES World Skies. ITU studies have shown the fixed-satellite service operations can’t co-exist operationally with terrestrial service in the same band, making it pointless to look at the spectrum above 3400 MHz, which is heavily used by FSS, the company said.
There are more than 150 FSS satellites operating in the 3400-6000 MHz bands “covering virtually the entire globe many times,” said Intelsat. Services include video distribution, Internet access, cellular backhaul and emergency communications, the company said. “Given the established incompatibility between FSS” and broadband wireless stations, the debate over finding terrestrial wireless spectrum in the FSS bands “should remain closed,” said Intelsat.
NPR asked the commission to withdraw the proposal A recommendations of the WRC-2012 advisory committee. It said the Public Radio Satellite System operates in the C-band, interconnects with more than 400 downlinks at public radio stations and is used by 250-plus distributors annually to deliver programming. “Satellite communication is, by its very nature, a specialized, high performance activity requiring careful frequency coordination and planning” and “not conducive to sharing with mobile services,” NPR said. “Wireless mobile transmitters in common or adjacent frequency bands would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of broadcast satellite systems,” the public radio programmer said. “C-Band in particular is widely utilized by broadcasters due to characteristics assuring high reliability during weather events and a wide variety of adverse conditions.”