The US bankruptcy court has finally confirmed and approved TerreStar Networks’ reorganisation plan.
At a confirmation hearing at the United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York on 14 February, Judge Sean Lane approved the joint Chapter…
The US bankruptcy court has finally confirmed and approved TerreStar Networks‘ reorganisation plan.
At a confirmation hearing at the United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York on 14 February, Judge Sean Lane approved the joint Chapter 11 plan, paving the way for satellite broadcaster Dish Network to take over the TerreStar’s assets and licences.
In a statement, Dish said: “Dish Network is pleased to announce that a US bankruptcy court today confirmed TerreStar’s reorganisation plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The US bankruptcy courts previously authorised TerreStar and DBSD to sell their spectrum licenses to Dish during the middle of 2011.
“Dish is prepared to close both transactions upon receipt of Federal Communications Commission approval of the license transfers and associated waiver requests. With these approvals, Dish would immediately begin the design and construction planning for the nation’s first 100 percent LTE network. The requested waivers are necessary, among other things, to remove an outdated requirement for every handset to have the capability to establish a communications link to a satellite. The waiver of this requirement will allow Dish to provide more meaningful competition and greater choice for wireless consumers.”
Dish revealed on 7 February that it had received approval from Industry Canada over the transfer of the Canadian spectrum licenses held by TerreStar to Dish, leaving the FCC clearance as the final hurdle in its MSS-ATC plans. Dish had sent its request to the US regulator to merge DBSD and TerreStar’s S-band spectrum back in September 2011.
However, FCC approval is not necessarily a done deal. In late January 2012, US telco AT&T petitioned the regulator to impose similar network roll out requirements on Dish as it gave LightSquared. These were to provide terrestrial coverage to at least 100 million people within 2 years 9 months of receiving approval and 260 million people within 5 years 9 months.
Dish has responded by urging the FCC to reject AT&T’s request, with Jeffrey Blum, Dish senior vice president, stating: “The overly aggressive and unrealistic schedule AT&T advocates would likely set Dish up for failure or force Dish into unfavourable business arrangements.”
