SATELLITE REGULATORS NEED TO MOVE CAUTIOUSLY ON INTERNET SERVICES

Regulators around the world need to resist the temptation to interfere with the rollout of satellite-based Internet services, a one-time top U.S. satellite regulator warned last week.

A current U.S. regulator shared the same concern about needing to regulate satellite-based Internet services carefully to avoid delaying the startup progress, while a satellite industry executive who is hoping to win licenses for his company to provide Internet services claimed that new businesses are continuing to face difficulty in convincing regulators to approve their proposed systems. All three viewpoints were offered before more than 100 attendees at a panel discussion held in Washington last week to address a wide range of issues at a conference, Global Opportunities for Internet Via Satellite, sponsored by the Center for Business Intelligence.

Any regulatory missteps could hinder the rollout of new satellite-based Internet services. The consequences would be enormous. Comsat Corp. [CQ], a Bethesda, Md.-based provider of satellite services, has estimated that 70 percent of new transponder leases are intended to provide Internet services.

"It is too soon to know whether governments will enable the Internet revolution, by satellite or otherwise, or whether they will cripple it," said Scott Harris, a partner in the Washington law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP and a former chief of the FCC's International Bureau (IB). "So far they have done fine. But the risks of over-regulation are great-and there are ominous rumblings from government buildings around the world."

Rebecca Arbogast, senior legal advisor at the IB, supported the view that regulators must act cautiously to avoid interfering with the introduction of satellite-based services. To that end, U.S. regulators are urging satellite companies to coordinate among themselves how to use spectrum, adopting flexible service rules and avoiding the creation of arbitrary technical standards, Arbogast said.

The vast importance of satellite-related Internet services is fully understood by U.S. and other regulators, she added.

The third panelist, Mark MacGann, SkyBridge's vice president of strategic planning, talked about the problems incurred by fledgling satellite providers in obtaining licenses to start service. SkyBridge is a proposed 80-satellite, low-Earth-orbit satellite system that is attempting to obtain a license from the FCC, but has yet to succeed. The company also is the target of opposition from rival systems that claim SkyBridge's plan to operate in the congested Ku- band will disrupt existing geostationary satellite services and communications that already use that spectrum.

"We do not interfere with other systems," said MacGann, who added SkyBridge's cost may top $6 billion for satellites, ground segment, user terminals and gateways.

Encouragement for new satellite systems was offered by Arbogast, who said the satellite policy objectives of U.S. regulators include fostering a competitive industry, minimizing regulation and enacting flexible regulatory policies, promoting market access aboard and encouraging foreign governments to adopt non-discriminatory policies.

Last year's World Trade Organization agreement on basic telecommunications services gave providers market access for satellite-delivered Internet services to most parts of the world. That agreement also requires governments to establish regulatory systems that promote competition, allocate needed spectrum and avoid discriminatory licensing practices.

If such regulatory policies are maintained, satellites will participate in the delivery of Internet services in a major way, Harris said.

"The explosive growth we've seen will have been only the beginning," Harris said. "Yet, Internet practically taunts governments to do the wrong things. Over the next few years, we will see whether our government-and others-will refrain from choking off the Internet phenomenon."

...AT&T Engineer Warns Of Satellite Congestion, Proposes Space-Based Solution

The race to launch new satellite systems to provide innovative Internet and other communications services poses potential bandwidth congestion problems, said a top AT&T [T] engineer. Paul Cooper told attendees at last week's conference that an "armada of satellites" will create spectrum congestion and other problems. Those challenges include spectral interference among satellite terrestrial links, global licensing battles, and heightened technical demands on system operations. To mitigate such problems, Cooper is proposing a universal space-borne satellite network gateway system that would allow all satellite service providers to interface in space.