SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh met with FCC chairman Brendan Carr and senior staffers earlier this April to discuss and hear more of the FCC’s plan to reallocate certain C-band frequencies for the benefit of US cellular operators.

The amounts involved are considerable. The first time the FCC reallocated C-band spectrum saw SES and Intelsat (which it now owns) receive $8.7 billion (€7.4bn) plus the fees associated with fitting new filters and adjustments to C-band Earth stations at their clients.

“SES reiterated that any clearing should be done in a manner that minimises disruption to customers’ services. SES also encouraged the commission to use a similar approach here” as the US regulator used for the previous C-Band reallocation between 2021 and 2023, said SES in its submission.

At the moment it is not clear what the return will be to SES. Investment bank Berenberg reckons it could be worth $1.5 billion. However, Swiss financial research firm Kepler Cheuvreux is much more bullish and suggests the reward could be as high as $3.4 billion.

SES stressed to Chairman Carr that this new exercise will be more complicated and take more than two years to initially achieve once the go-ahead was given. That decision will come later this year but the complete process will likely take some five years, and include building and launching new satellites which the FCC will also have to fund.

Ratings agency Fitch suggests that all revenues from the process will go to reducing debt which was around $6 billion following the acquisition of Intelsat. SES wants to reduce that debt by at least 25 per cent. Then, Fitch reminds clients, SES will boost shareholder payouts.

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Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: FCC, fitch, SES, usa