SES New Skies has written to its customers, calling on them to challenge proposals to have the so-called C-band reassigned to terrestrial mobile services. In a letter signed by both SES New Skies President and CEO Robert Bednarek and SES President and CEO Romain Bausch, the company calls on its customers to lobby their national governments and regulators to oppose the move, arguing that were the proposals to be approved there would be a negative impact on the satellite business.
SES began lobbying against the change last year. In the run up to the ITU frequencies conference in October it now says it has reached a critical stage in its campaign.
C-band was the original allocation for communications satellites. The lower frequencies between 3.400 and 4.800GHz perform better in adverse weather conditions than the Ku-band used by the DTH satellites in Europe.
The challenge from wifi services blocking c-band reception is a global one, recently Indian Space Organisation ISRO, that builds and operates the INSAT satellite fleet, was caught out by an Indian Government decission to allocate part of the C-band to wifi services, ordering other users to vacate the spectrum.
The issue is particularly remarkable, as it involves what has become known as the INSAT-band, an extension to the original US C-band the Indians started using in the 80s.
