Policy changes to satellite spectrum okay with Telesat Canada

Telesat Canada is satisfied that recent changes to the C- and Ka- satellite spectrum bands are in the best interests of satellite operators (DGTP-008-04). Industry Canada introduced policy changes to bands earlier this month that harmonize the two bands with policies set out by other international jurisdictions (RoW, Oct. 5/04). Paul Bush, VP of broadcast and corporate development at Telesat, says that the department’s decision to harmonize Ka-band spectrum with that in the United States is a positive move and provides greater certainty in offering multimedia satellite services in future. "From a coordination standpoint and from a utilization standpoint, it’s a lot clearer in terms of where we go from here," he explains. Key to this decision, says Bush, is that the government has protected valuable spectrum from interference. Industry hope is that the spectrum will remain protected in the future, even with the introduction of emerging technologies using the same bands. "From our standpoint what we are always looking for is when you are making hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and you’re serving areas of the country that are not being served by other service providers, you want to make sure that that spectrum is protected…We’re fairly happy with what came out here and we’re hopeful on some of these new services that are being pushed like ultra wideband and other things that as we roll out Ka-band and as we roll out more services into the communities that that the fact that we’re there providing service is going to be taken into account as they periodically review these policies," he tells Report on Wireless. Industry Canada’s decision to repatriate C-band spectrum (4500-4800 MHz paired with 6725-7075 MHz) for government uses won’t have an impact on the company’s operation, says Bush. "The allotment bands and the extended bands are pretty well difficult to use anyway for us at C-band because you’ve got a fair amount of military and other things are already happening in it. It’s basically crystallizing that," he says. Another positive outcome of the decision, Bush says, is that Industry Canada opted to limit the number of fixed services in the vicinity of satellite earth stations. Fixed service and fixed satellite service are allocated on a co-primary basis in the allotment C-band. "They agreed that there would not be any fixed ubiquitous service in it, which is where the concern comes when you have an earth station and you’ve got 400 fixed line-of-sight services in the same frequency band all around it," he explains.

Policy changes to satellite spectrum okay with Telesat Canada

News | October 21, 2004

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