The Federal Communications Commission has terminated DTH provider Dish Network’s licence to use the 148W orbital location due to its failure to fill the slot for more than two years. Dish valued the licence at US$68m, which it will now write off in its…
The Federal Communications Commission has terminated DTH provider Dish Network’s licence to use the 148W orbital location due to its failure to fill the slot for more than two years. Dish valued the licence at US$68m, which it will now write off in its second quarter results.
Dish de-orbited its EchoStar-5 satellite from 148W in August 2009. The company then told the US communications regulator that it would not be in a position to determine which of its in-orbit satellites might be available to move into the vacant orbital location until late 2012.
The FCC concluded that allowing the company to continue to suspend operations at a location that it has left vacant for over two years, and for which it still has no committed plans, would allow Dish to warehouse scarce orbit and spectrum resources, contrary to its policy. Under the regulator’s rules a licence will automatically terminate if the slot is not used for more than 90 days.
In response, Dish said that it was ‘currently evaluating whether to challenge this termination’.
Dish was first granted the orbital slot back in 1996 and positioned both EchoStar-1 and then EchoStar-2 there. In July 2008, EchoStar-2 suffered an in-orbit failure and Dish subsequently relocated EchoStar-5 to the slot, commencing services in June 2009. Only two months later, EchoStar-5 had to be de-orbited due to low fuel reserves.
Dish’s initial plan was to then fill the slot with EchoStar-8 once QuetzSat-1 had successfully replaced it at 77W. The company said that the launch window for QuetzSat-1 was November 2011 and it anticipated relocating EchoStar-8 around June 2012. However, Dish then modified this application in February 2012, stating that it could not determine which satellite would fill the position until after the launch of EchoStar-16 in August 2012.
The FCC argued that Dish’s February supplement demonstrated that it ‘still has no concrete plans to operate a satellite at 148W and that the orbital location will remain vacant for an indeterminate time’.
