Pho To cour Tesy of esAc
any means. In many parts of the world
the cellular networks do not work if
you lose C-band. VSAT networks for
business transactions are often riding
over C-band services as well. That is
why we are trying to inform customers of the scale and scope of the services in C-band. We have suggested to
governments that given the value and
critical nature of the satellite C-band
services they will either have to locate a
different frequency band for IMT [and]
WiMax services or find a new telecommunications network that can provide
services currently operating in the C-band. With respect to the latter, we do
not believe that either the network or
technology exists to provide these services cost effectively in an alternative
manner to current satellite C-band.”
IMT and WiMax players going after
this portion of spectrum is the equivalent of satellite players going after
spectrum which is traditionally used
for pure wireless services, says Bednarek. “Terrestrial equipment manufacturers and operators aspire to offer
new services which may have value but
essentially they want satellite spectrum
that is being used for valuable services
and simply wish to place their own services there,” he says. “The equivalent
would be the satellite industry saying
we prefer to keep analog transmissions
and thus we need yet more spectrum
and thus would like the 3G band allocated to satellite.”
the Vil- 4 12-meter C-band antenna at the the Vil-european space astronomy Centre at
Villafranca, spain. C-band is vital to many
satellite services, including broadcasting,
internet trunking and telecommunications.
The Potential Losers
While the satellite industry itself has
much to lose if the C-band spectrum
is reallocated, the loss of services
supplied via this spectrum would have
an impact on lives around the globe.
“There are hundreds of applications
which are supported by C-band
satellites,” says Bednarek. “Many of
these have vital economic roles. For
someone to come along and say that
terrestrial residential broadband access
using an unproven business model
where other technological alternatives
are well embedded trumps all of those
services, it is just not appropriate.”
In places such as Asia, satellite-based
C-band services play a vital role, says
Gude. “I think there is a growing understanding of the importance of C-band
services to them, particularly when it
comes to high rain zone areas or areas
which require much broader coverage
in terms of land mass,” he says. “You
just cannot provide these services cost-effectively in any other band or in any
other way than using satellite services for those applications. In high rain
zones, C-band tends to be largely impervious to rain fade, making this band the
most reliable for service distribution.
The large beam coverages also allow for
the extension of telecommunications
networks to rural and low population
density areas in a way that other technologies cannot.”
Tom Choi, CEO of Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) also sees potential catastrophe in the Asia-Pacific
region if access to the spectrum is
lost. ABS operates 28 C-band transponders over the region, which represents more than 60 percent of the
company’s capacity. “We are deeply
concerned about the use of WiMax in
the C-band spectrum,” he says. “ABS,
like any other satellite operators in the
Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific region,
would be severely impacted if all of the
C-band capacity would not be usable
for our customers.”
While ABS and other satellite players would be hurt, Choi also believes
many other industries in Asia would
suffer. “The loss of C-band for satellite
communications would impact a much
bigger set of industries, including the
GSM-cellular operators, telecommunications companies that use satellites
for backhaul communications or fiber
back-up services, and, most importantly, cable television broadcasters who
require reliable means of delivering
their signals to systems without being
impacted by rain fade,” he says. “The
total cost to the global economy would
be in untold billions. It would affect
almost everyone in the region where C-band is vital to television broadcasting
and mobile communications.”
There also would be huge ramifications for populations in Latin America
and Africa if satellite players’ arguments
ultimately fall on deaf ears. “In recent
years, some of the largest deployments
of VSAT services have been for users
in developing countries,” he says. “For
example, more than 125,000 university
students in Brazil are being educated
right now via satellite. The African Virtual University links more than a dozen
academic institutions across the continent. Many thousands of primary and
secondary students are being educated
via satellite throughout Mexico at more
than 60,000 locations.
Governments in these regions also
are using C-band satellite services to
implement a broad range of programs
such as telehealth, rural telecenters,
cyber cafes, post offices, air traffic
control, small and medium enterprises, oil and gas concerns, mining, forestry, banking and other financial ser-
