FCC ORBIT Act Report to Include Accusations Against Intelsat
The FCC’s Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act report will likely include reference to the accusations of anticompetitive behavior against Intelsat as part of an historical overview of the proceeding, an FCC official said. The overview will include all filings on the matter as past reports have, the official said. Globecomm, Artel, CapRock, and Spacenet filed complaints about the structure of the fixed satellite services market and accused Intelsat of anticompetitive behavior in the ORBIT Act docket. The ORBIT Act requires the FCC to provide annual reports to the House and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees on the effect of the privatization of Intelsat and Inmarsat.
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Intelsat expects the ORBIT Act report to confirm the company’s compliance with the Act, said Intelsat General Counsel Phillip Spector. Intelsat has said the proceeding is meant to confirm that Intelsat now operates in the satellite marketplace as a privatized company and without the preferential treatment given to an intergovernmental organization rather than to address competitive issues (CD April 23 p11). Spector declined to comment further on the issue.
Both sides have met recently with commission staff as the International Bureau was beginning to write its report, which is due to Congress June 15, ex parte filings show. A draft of the report will be sent to the FCC commissioners for final approval before it’s sent to Congress. The International Bureau hasn’t yet circulated the draft, though it’s in its final stages, an FCC official said. The contentious nature of the filings on the ORBIT Act has elicited far more interest within and outside of the agency, the official said. Many years, only Intelsat and Inmarsat file comments in the proceeding.
The report likely won’t confirm or deny that problems in the satellite market exist, and further action through the ORBIT Act proceeding largely depends on whether the Congressional committees want to take it up, industry and commission officials said. Neither side was lobbying the Hill on the issue, though several of the companies involved are considering it, industry executives said. Another option would be for the accusing companies to refile their claims for the annual satellite competition report that is also written by the International Bureau. The International Bureau hasn’t yet set a date for the report.
It remains unclear if all the companies making the accusations will continue to work on the issue as vigorously, considering some new circumstances have emerged since the initial filings. CapRock could potentially pull back on efforts to go after Intelsat depending on whether Harris Corp., which recently agreed to buy CapRock (CD May 24 p14), wants to continue to pursue the issue. A lawyer who represented CapRock in its ORBIT Act filings declined to comment. Also, earlier this month CapRock’s and Artel’s protests of Intelsat’s Commercial Broadband Satellite Program award from the U.S. Navy were dismissed by the Government Accountability Office. CapRock had pointed to Intelsat’s behavior during the bidding process as an example of anticompetitive behavior and other observers considered the award as the impetus for some of the filings. Intelsat’s subsidiary, Intelsat General, eventually won the $543 million, five-year contract.