Industry Canada to issue call for applications to develop satellite orbital slots

Industry Canada plans to issue a call for applications to develop several satellite orbital locations, but it is not yet known when the department will proceed with an announcement. The news comes after the spectrum regulator publicly announced November 8 the closing of a call for applications regarding a number of broadcasting orbital slots using the 17 GHz broadcasting-satellite services (BSS) band. Richard Hiebert, Industry Canada’s manager of space service authorizations, tells Report on Wireless the reason the department closed the call for applications was because it didn’t receive any substantive applications for any of the orbital locations. He adds that the applicants – Telesat Canada and Pegasus Development Corp., a front for American satellite TV company Pegasus Communications – didn’t press Industry Canada for a decision either. "The criteria for assigning was we wanted a substantive plan for implementing a satellite within certain time frames, and we didn’t get any substantive plans. That’s the bottom line," he says. The closing of the call for 17 GHz BSS band has opened the door, however, to a further licensing process, Hiebert says. "Now that the process is closed we can think about doing another process," he notes, adding that he can’t provide any more details regarding the timing or scope of the pending licensing; the decision is made by the Minister of Industry. "We’re not at a point of making a recommendation to the minister at this time. But certainly, we know that there is interest in the 17 GHz, we know that we’re going to go forward with a call for other positions, and we’re trying to work through all the permeations of whether or not we should be putting the 17 GHZ positions in the call as well how," he explains. Since the original call for applications for the 17 GHz orbital locations was issued in 2002, there have been some significant developments with respect to Canada’s right to those locations. Initially, Canada had the rights to 11 slots and only had five years to develop them, meaning a satellite had to be brought into service in any of those 11 slots by April 2007. International Telecommunication Union rule changes in 2003 have extended the country’s right to those locations until 2009. In addition, Canada now has the rights to 14 orbital positions at 17 GHz. Ciel Satellite Group Inc. has already indicated that it wants additional orbital resources so that it can fully develop its business plan. In an interview with Report on Wireless last year, Ciel CEO Kevin Smyth said the company needed at least two more satellites to be competitive in the market (RoW, Oct. 5/04). In its original applications, Ciel had also applied for the Ka-band in the 118.7 degrees west orbital position as well as the C/Ku-band spectrum in the 109.2 degrees west slot. "Our belief is that in order to fully realize the introduction of a competitive market in this country we’re going to need to be able to provide a full suite of services like the incumbent. But with one slot it’s difficult to do that," he said at the time. Telesat is also on the record as being interested in the Ka-band at the 118.7 degrees west orbital slot. It already holds the rights to C/Ku-band in the 118.7 position. Future for broadcasters in is 17 GHz BSSHiebert explains that the department spent much of the summer in consultations with broadcasters and satellite operators trying to determine their future satellite capacity requirements. "We were tying to get a handle on what this growth was going to look like over the next several years, so that we could see how releasing spectrum and positions would align with the expectation of growth. As a result of those consultations, we’ve learned that there is more mature interest in 17 GHz BSS as the next band for development for broadcasting," he says. And there is really no other choice but to look to the 17 GHz band. There aren’t that many Ku-bands available and suitable for providing direct-to-home satellite TV services. Equally, the number of DBS positions suitable is lacking. "Those positions are full . There’s room for tweaking capacity with technology, but essentially need to go somewhere else," Hiebert explains.

Industry Canada to issue call for applications to develop satellite orbital slots

News | December 1, 2005

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