C-Band Clearing Reimbursements to Start as Soon as October
The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse anticipates reimbursement payments starting to flow by mid-October to satellite and earth station operators clearing the band for terrestrial 5G use. It started accepting claims submissions last week through its online Coupa portal (see 2108170060), and received about 400 claims of more than $700 million that week, said Frank Banda, CohnReznick public sector managing partner. CohnReznick and subcontractors are the clearinghouse.
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The clearinghouse reviews the claims and presents the approved ones to overlay licensees, paying within 30 days of submitting an invoice for approved claims to the overlay licensees. The first invoice submissions should go out on or about Sept. 12, and the first batch of claims will be paid within 30 days afterward, Banda said in an interview.
Of about 1,500 earth station operator claimants, a third haven't set up online portal profiles, Banda said. That "has been tremendous challenge," he said, saying the clearinghouse is using a call center for outreach. The major satellite operators and big earth station operators have set up their profiles and most submitted their claims, Banda said. He said the slower-than-expected profile process may be due to claimants entitled to relatively small lump sums not making it a priority. Claimants starting to get paid should help rev up the pace of profiles being set up, he said: "We are not alarmed at this time."
Banda said the reimbursement had a slow start because of a challenge to the CohnReznick team's selection as clearinghouse (see 2008250032) but since has been "well underway." Given the billions of dollars involved and complex regulatory process, "to stand up something like this does take time," he said. "Everybody wants this thing to go fast; it's complex." The FCC didn't comment.
NAB emailed that it "understands that the clearinghouse was unable to make [earth station operator] reimbursements until the FCC granted new wireless licenses in the C-band. With the FCC granting over 5,000 licenses last month, we hope that the Clearinghouse will be able to begin making reimbursements promptly.”
C-band satellite operator SES emailed it has spent about half of its anticipated $1.6 billion in transition costs, consistent with its transition plan. "We are happy that the clearing house has started accepting reimbursement claims, and we are hopeful that the review process will be smooth and quick," it said. C-band satellite operator Intelsat emailed that C-band expenses it has publicly announced or confirmed to date are $156.6 million, and it has begun submitting invoices.
There has been lobbying at the FCC about ways to speed up the process (for example, see 2107120027), but Banda said the agency C-band order is "pretty clear -- the funds that go into the reimbursement fund are drawn to pay approved invoice claims. It doesn't say anything about paying advances."