Dish, Other Satcom Operators Clashing Over 12 GHz Sharing

Satellite operator opposition to opening the 12 GHz band to 5G use “has it backwards” when it looks at years-old studies about difficulties of sharing between non-geostationary orbit and higher-power terrestrial services because such sharing is easier now due to beamforming and horizon mulling advancements, Dish Network said in a docket 20-443 post Monday, calling those satcom operators “the Anti-5G group.” The ability of SpaceX’s NGSO service and direct broadcast satellite services to share the band “is bleak,” since SpaceX’s first-generation constellation will exceed equivalent power flux density limits, it said. DirecTV and Intelsat aren’t even extensive users of 12 GHz, while OneWeb and Kepler want to use the spectrum but have no demonstrable need for it, it said. The operators and SES said multichannel video distribution and data service licensees like Dish still have yet to offer any proposal for coexistence, in an ex parte filing last month on meetings with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks. That “seems to imply that protection of incumbent services by 5G services is impossible to achieve,” they said. They said MVDDS interests ignored almost all the incumbent licensees because any technical study that acknowledges them and accounts for the sharing rules of the band “would show a massive disruption to millions of Americans.”