Tim Warren

The GPS industry is taking its concerns of interference due to LightSquared’s planned wireless network to Capitol Hill. Trimble Navigation General Counsel Jim Kirkland will testify at House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee Friday with a focus on the LightSquared issue, he said in an interview. Kirkland, along with Garmin, is also helping organize a new ad hoc group called the Coalition to Save Our GPS. Several companies, groups and federal agencies have voiced worries that LightSquared’s proposed service would harm GPS services. LightSquared is in the process of addressing these concerns along with the U.S. GPS Industry Council in a working group, as required by the FCC.

Harbinger Capital Partners and Solus Alternative Asset Management are seeking to buy bankrupt S-band licensees TerreStar and DBSD for $2.6 billion, said bankruptcy court filings late Tuesday. The offer hasn’t been finalized and was made through a bidder letter Monday. The bid led to further delay of a bankruptcy court decision on whether to accept Dish Network’s $1 billion offer for DBSD (CD Feb 2 p8). The bankruptcy judge, expected to rule on Dish’s plan Wednesday, would have to approve either transaction, and the FCC probably would, too. Acquiring the companies would give Harbinger, which owns LightSquared, access to an additional 40 MHz of S-band spectrum as it continues to try to build out a wireless network in the L-band. LightSquared has recently run into GPS spectrum interference concerns over the use of its L-band spectrum.

The FCC International Bureau overstepped its authority in granting the LightSquared a waiver of mobile satellite service rules that will allow it to offer terrestrial-only service through resellers, companies and groups said in filings at the FCC. Applications for review and a petition for reconsideration were filed. Requests for review are largely focused on alleged procedural problems. Meanwhile, LightSquared submitted its first working group structure report to the FCC. LightSquared was required to create working group to address GPS interference concerns and submit reports to the agency as a condition of the waiver (CD Jan 27 p1).

With fervent support from members of Congress, state legislators, local government leaders and public interest groups, “targeted reforms” of the system of designated market areas (DMAs) face “significant opposition” only “from the broadcasters,” Dish Network said in reply comments filed at the FCC. The NAB offers “unsupported doomsday scenarios” about the results of changes that “falsely equate improvements to the system” with “outright abandonment,” Dish said. Allowing a statewide license that would permit TV providers to provide in-state broadcast stations to “orphan counties” would be an “incremental” change that would deal with problems without disturbing the market, the company said. Dish was responding to the Media Bureau’s request for comments on in-state local broadcast programming information and ways to resolve the problem of orphan counties, those at least partly outside the borders of a designated market area. The bureau is putting together a report on the issue that will be provided to Congress by Aug. 27 under the Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act.

Dish Network’s recent S-band acquisition efforts aren’t part of “a grand strategy at this point,” said Dish CEO Charlie Ergen during its Q4 conference call Thursday. Dish recently agreed to buy bankrupt S-band licensee DBSD, though the deal still needs bankruptcy court approval. “I think spectrum has value,” Ergen said. Using that spectrum and acquiring more spectrum that fits together are both ways to increase the value of that spectrum, he said. The recent acquisition efforts have raised speculation among analysts that Ergen is planning a wireless network and/or seeking new ways to complement the core DBS business with Internet-delivered programming.

Changes to the retransmission consent process are likely in about a year, despite the FCC’s March 3 meeting where the agency will vote on a retrans rulemaking, said DirecTV CEO Mike White during the company’s Q4 earnings conference call. “Realistically, change comes slowly in this area in Washington, so while there is a hearing in March or they may talk about some things, I think you are a year away before you would see those things change.” DirecTV is part of the American Television Alliance, which seeks changes to retrans rules, and White discussed the issue in response to an analyst’s question.

Concerns over federal committee rules could delay efforts to address spectrum interference worries related to LightSquared’s service, the U.S. GPS Industry Council (GIC) said in an “emergency petition” filing at the FCC late Tuesday. The FCC International Bureau waiver that established a working group to address GPS-industry concerns with LightSquared’s coming service (CD Jan 27 p1) needs quick FCC clarification, said the GIC. That waiver lacked a description of “whether the working group lies outside the scope of the Federal Advisory Committee Act,” which includes federal requirements for establishing a working group, said the GIC in the filing -- http://xrl.us/bh969f. The GIC asked for clarification by Feb. 23, two days before the Feb. 25 deadline when LightSquared is required to submit its first report on the working group to the FCC.

EchoStar agreed to acquire Hughes Communications for about $2 billion, including Hughes’ debt, which is “expected to be refinanced in connection with the transaction,” the companies said Monday. The agreement, which has already been approved by the companies’ boards, faces federal regulatory approval, including from the FCC, the companies said. Industry observers said they didn’t see an obvious reason for regulators to block the deal, though it could be affected by other acquisition efforts. The deal includes Hughes Communications’ largest subsidiary, satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems, the companies said.

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.

Dish Network’s proposed purchase of bankrupt S-band licensee DBSD (CD Feb 2 p8) came right after the FCC’s LightSquared waiver approval (CD Jan 27 p1), yet it remains difficult to predict if Dish could garner similar waiver treatment from the agency, said industry executives. Dish has numerous options for use of the spectrum and much will depend on specific plans before it’s clear that Dish will even need such approval, they said. Its agreement to buy DBSD for $1 billion is still contingent on bankruptcy court and FCC approval.