S-Band Use Worldwide Is Globalstar's Next Big Regulatory Challenge
The multitudinous uses of S-band around the globe, including fixed wireless and radionavigation operations of the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), are potential hurdles as Globalstar looks for international regulatory approval of its terrestrial broadband (see 1701060047), experts told us. When dealing with low-power services as Globalstar has proposed, interference concerns can usually be resolved relatively easily, said a communications lawyer with satellite and wireless experience.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Noise bleeding over from adjacent Wi-Fi operations in the 2.4 GHz band should help insulate Globalstar's LTE plans from running afoul of other operations also using its licensed spectrum since it deters sensitive systems, General Counsel Barbee Ponder said in an interview. "When a system looks at whether it wants to locate in a particular band, it certainly considers who its neighbors are."
Globalstar said it will seek similar or identical regulatory approval in international jurisdictions as the revised low-power mobile broadband plans in the 2483.5-2495 MHz band the FCC OK'd in December (see 1612230060). The company talked with some nations before the FCC approval, Ponder said, saying with the approval those talks "will get kicked up a notch." The company didn't comment on specific countries.
The 2483.5-2495 band is complicated in the ITU table of allocations, allowing for fixed wireless, mobile terrestrial, mobile satellite service and radiodetermination services including IRNSS, said a communications lawyer with satellite experience. Those uses of the band could raise regulatory concerns about interference, experts told us. Lowering power levels or accepting lower out-of-band emission limits to get regulatory approval in a particular country is possible, but can be problematic since companies want to avoid either having multiple devices for multiple jurisdictions or one device for all the various markets but keyed to the most restrictive operating parameters, the lawyer with satellite experience said.
The FCC approval should grease the skids for other nations to sign off, said Globalstar and experts. "International jurisdictions are very much aware of what the FCC is doing and what the FCC has done," Ponder said. He also said FCC action influences regulatory processes in other countries, with the time spent on the proceeding and the end results "show[ing] other potential international jurisdictions it's worth their time and effort as well."
Canada and the EU quickly followed U.S. suit when it adopted mobile satellite service/ancillary terrestrial component (MSS-ATC) rules in the early 2000s, so they already are familiar with the concept and could be particularly easier areas to get regulatory approval, while many other nations might first have to set up the regulatory framework for terrestrial use of satellite spectrum, said a lawyer with wireless and satellite clients and international telco experience. That process might take time, but the FCC approval would help cement the case there's no regulatory reason not to allow Globalstar to use the spectrum for providing terrestrial service in other countries, the lawyer said, though there could be political hangups like resistance to a U.S. company providing terrestrial service in a given country. The lawyer also said the State Department at World Radiocommunicaton Conference 2007 supported MSS-ATC, and Globalstar could try to use the upcoming WRC-19 to help support its goals such as through trying to get a general statement from the U.S. delegation that countries should be allowing MSS-ATC.
WRC-19 and ITU meetings leading up to it are an opportunity to talk to regulators, Ponder said. He said the company has been at most ITU meetings and takes part in meetings and working groups and plans to still do so -- with getting regulatory approval one of its additional goals.