Advanced Television

CBA describes ACA proposals for 5G as “half-baked”

August 9, 2019

By Chris Forrester

In its latest filing the C-Band Alliance (CBA) is being ultra-polite in suggesting that a submission to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the America’s Communications Association’s Connects Coalition (ACACC) “lacks significant detail”, is “mistaken”, “fails to articulate”, “a gross misunderstanding”, is “impossible to achieve”, “faulty assumptions”, “half-baked” and just to rub home the message “it is unlawful”.

The Alliance of the four largest satellite operators (Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat) submitted its formal response to the FCC in a 39-page document on August 7 saying that the ACACC’s proposal to repurpose 370 MHz of spectrum (the CBA is suggesting 180 MHz) is “short on details and long on unsubstantiated promises” and suffers from a “complete lack of details”.

The CBA’s filing warns the FCC that if it were to adopt the ACACC’s proposals the “transition timeline
would balloon well beyond the 18 months contemplated by its proposal, and indeed beyond the 36 months it will take to reallocate C-Band spectrum pursuant to the C-Band Alliance’s proposal”.

“As if that were not enough, there is an additional reason not to adopt the Coalition’s proposal— the proposal’s vague auction scheme would violate the law,” states the CBA’s filing.

The CBA makes a number of potential modifications to its initial proposals for consideration by the FCC, saying that further “enhancements” can be made. These include antenna elevation angles; the 150 meter radius around an earth station ‘rule’; the 150 kms radius around a Telemetry, Tracking & Command ground-based ‘gateway’ site; improved filter efficiency and ‘out of band’ emission levels.

The FCC is considering the CBA proposals and is expected to rule this autumn.

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