WASHINGTON—Any incumbent C-band earth station antennas that are currently listed as no longer operational or have not responded to the FCC or C-band operators have until mid April to verify their status with the FCC’s International Bureau.
In a public notice dated Jan. 19, the FCC is giving these operators 90 days to submit a filing to the International Bureau affirming their continued operation and the intent to participate in the C-band transition, or be terminated and lose their incumbent status as of April 19.
The RMS US LLP compiled the list of earth station antennas that have been reported as either no longer operational or have failed to respond to RSM communications. RSM is responsible for coordinating with the five incumbent C-band satellite operators—Eutelsat, Intelsast, SES, StarOne and Telesat—to ensure that all incumbent earth stations are accounted for during the transition.
Per the FCC public notice, while the vast majority of earth station operators have responded and are accounted for, a limited number of incumbent earth stations remain unclaimed by any of the satellite operators or were unresponsive after multiple attempts at contact.
The FCC will now presume that any of the stations categorized as either not operational or unresponsive have ceased operations. As a result, they are not entitled to interference protection from the new licenses moving into the C-band.
If a station is misidentified as having ceased operations, it has until April 19 to make one of two filings. One is to file to remove those antennas from IBFS as no longer operational; the other is to file in ECFS IB Docket No. 20-205 to assert those antennas are still operational.
Here are the stations that the FCC has confirmed as no longer in operation or that have been unresponsive.
For more information, read the full public notice from the FCC.
