Advanced Television

C-band

C-band clearance on schedule

Intelsat and SES, the two largest operators of C-band frequencies over the US, have completed Phase 1 of their clearance of spectrum by the important June 1st deadline. It means that the two, plus Eutelsat and Telesat of Canada, can qualify for the FCC’s initial end-of-year pay-out of some $2 billion in so-called incentive payments. […]

June 4, 2021

Verizon C-band spectrum speed success

US multiplay telco Verizon is continuing to prepare for 5G Ultra Wideband expansion across its newly-acquired national footprint of C-band spectrum. In a recent lab trial, Verizon worked with Ericsson and MediaTek to aggregate C-band spectrum with mmWave spectrum, achieving speeds of 4.3 Gbps in the trial. “The depth of our spectrum portfolio, now the […]

May 6, 2021

Verizon starts C-Band equipment deployment

US multiplay telco Verizon recently began installation of C-band equipment from Ericsson and Samsung Electronics to speed deployment of its 5G Ultra Wideband and fixed wireless broadband service on its recently-acquired C-band spectrum. Verizon secured an average of 161 MHz of C-band spectrum nationwide in the recent FCC auction, which will allow the company to […]

April 20, 2021

C-band pay-out: Intelsat’s complex subsidiary structure

Intelsat has dozens of inter-related subsidiary and sister companies. These associated business are creating significant headaches for its bankruptcy court, Intelsat’s many debtors and arch-rival SES. SES, and some bond holders, are arguing that Intelsat is deliberately using these sister businesses to hide its current and especially future assets. Those future assets include the much-anticipated […]

April 19, 2021By Chris Forrester

Intelsat gets tough in C-band dispute

The avalanche of legal filings and motions in the increasingly bitter dispute between SES and Intelsat over the division of C-band ‘incentives’ from the FCC is simply immense. April 14th saw another flood of documents, but one stood out, which contained Intelsat’s strong rebuttal of some of SES arguments. The opening paragraph says it all: […]

April 16, 2021By Chris Forrester

SES claims ‘whistleblower’ C-Band evidence

SES has dramatically turned up the heat in its increasingly acrimonious dispute with Intelsat over the division of the FCC’s ‘incentive’ payments for C-Band restructuring over the US. There will be a detailed court hearing on SES’s allegations in June. Intelsat has already asked its bankruptcy court to ‘seal’ many of the documents, but SES, […]

April 6, 2021

SES gets tough over C-band cash

The $1.8 billion legal claim by SES on Intelsat concerning the SES claim on the split of FCC’s C-band incentive payments rumbles on, but with some tough comments from an SES submission to Intelsat’s bankruptcy court. SES filed its further motion with Intelsat’s bankruptcy court on March 3rd and wants the court to determine which […]

March 5, 2021

SES renews Sky deal; FY revenue dips

Ahead of its results announcement, SES confirmed it had extended its contract with Sky UK that will result in a €90 million gain in its secured backlog. SES added: “By the end of the renewed contract, Sky UK will have been an SES customer continuously for almost four decades.” “This is a significant, multi-transponder, multi-year […]

February 25, 2021By Chris Forrester

Extra C-band payments “likely” to SES/Intelsat

It was always expected that there could be extra payments to the C-band satellite operators once the FCC-organised auction had shown the strength of demand for spectrum. The four key players (Intelsat, SES, Telesat and Eutelsat) are already in line to share around $10 billion in FCC-authorised “incentives” for clearing their C-band satellite spectrum. With […]

February 11, 2021

Intelsat boss accused of insider trading

Intelsat has been hit with another claim of insider dealing over the reallocation of C-band spectrum and the collapse of Intelsat share values. This time the allegation concerns its current chairman and former CEO Dave McGlade. Intelsat is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reconstruction. McGlade is specifically alleged to have sold a significant package of Intelsat […]

January 18, 2021