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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 169 / Friday, September 3, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
operators are classified as non-broadcast licensees and their license terms were extended to 10 years. Subsequently, the Telecommunications Act of 1996
granted the Commission authority to establish license terms longer than 10
years for non-broadcast stations.
The Commission concludes that issuing non-broadcast DBS space station licenses for 15 years would better reflect the useful life of new DBS satellites, as our extension of the license term for such DBS space stations from 5 to 10
years did in 1995. There are no technical or engineering considerations that render the operating life of a DBS
satellite shorter than the operating life of a non-DBS satellite, such as those used to provide GSO FSS, and DBS
satellites generally are able to provide service beyond their initial 10-year license terms. It would also make DBS
space station license terms consistent with the terms of most other space stations.
Optional Two-Step FCC/ITU License Application Process. The Commission adopted an optional two-step application process for GSO FSS
applicants in 2015. Under that two-step application process, an applicant for a GSO FSS license using frequencies in unplanned bands must submit a draft Coordination Request filing to the Commission using a simplified application formForm 312 Main Formpay the full license application fee and post a $500,000 bond in order to establish and perfect a queue position. This first-step application submission establishes a place in the space station application processing queue as of the time of filing of the simplified Form 312 with the Commission. As a second step, the prospective licensee must file a complete license application within two years of submission of the Coordination Request materials or forfeit the value of the bond and lose the queue status gained by the prior Coordination Request filing. This two-step application process is completely optional, and, as an alternative, applicants may file a full application without first submitting a draft Coordination Request or posting the corresponding $500,000 bond. The Commission adopted a similar two-step application process for GSO FSS
operation in planned frequency bands subject to Appendix 30B of the ITU
Radio Regulations. The Commission extends the two-step process for GSO
FSS operations in unplanned bands to DBS operations in planned bands, and, in this respect, will treat ITU filings to modify an existing frequency assignment in the Region 2 Plan, to include a new frequency assignment in
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the Region 2 Plan, or to include a new or modified frequency assignment in the List of the Regions 1 and 3 Plan in the same manner as a Coordination Request filing for GSO FSS operation in nonplanned bands.
Unlike Coordination Requests in nonplanned bands, however, the Commission will review a proposed filing under Appendices 30 and 30A
prior to forwarding the filing to the ITU
to ensure that it is compatible with other U.S. filings. This review is necessary to protect the rights of existing U.S. filings from being unduly eroded under the relevant ITU
protection criteria by another U.S. filing.
Accordingly, the party requesting a planned-band filing must either submit the results of an analysis demonstrating that the proposed operation will not affect any other U.S. filing under the relevant ITU criteria or, if another filing would be deemed affected, submit a letter signed by the affected operator which may be the same as the operator requesting the new filing that it consents to the new filing. This review is consistent with our conclusions above regarding the processing of all requests for DBS service. The Commission likewise requires applicants for DBS
licenses using the two-step procedure to submit the application filing fee and a bond of $500,000 with their applications and ITU filings. As noted above, in the FSS licensing framework, an applicant submission with the Commission under the first step of the optional two-step procedure must be accompanied by the application fee and a $500,000 bond. The purpose of the application-stage bond is to deter speculation during the two-year period of queue priority before the applicant must submit a completed application.
The Commission finds that these considerations also apply to DBS
licensees.
Non-U.S. Licensed Systems. With the exception of the two-step processing procedure discussed above, the Commission also applies procedures and requirements proposed for DBS
service license applications to requests to access the United States market by non-U.S. licensed space stations under our DISCO II framework. The Commission notes that the Commission decided in the DISCO II proceeding that entities wishing to serve the United States with a non-U.S. satellite, including DBS satellites, must file the same information as applicants for a U.S. space station license, whether or not that satellite is already licensed by another administration. Consequently, operators of non-U.S. licensed DBS
space station seeking U.S. market access
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and entities filing earth station applications to access non-U.S. licensed DBS space stations must file the same information required under section 25.114 of the Commissions rules.
The Commission further notes that the United States took an exemption from the World Trade Organizations Basic Telecommunication Agreement for one-way satellite transmission of DTH and DBS television services and digital audio services. Thus, in order to serve the United States, foreign-licensed DBS systems must be found acceptable under the Effective Competitive Opportunities analysis the Commission adopted in our DISCO II proceeding in 1997 ECO-Sat. The Commission does not intend to revisit any of these considerations. Foreign DBS systems requesting market access to serve the United States will be considered on the same first-come, first-served basis as applications for authority to provide DBS services.
Reduced Spacing for DBS Space Stations. The Commission concludes that the public interest would be served by granting requests for new DBS
service via space stations at orbital locations less than nine degrees apart, but that the public interest would not be served by adopting specific rules, different from those contained in Appendices 30 and 30A of the ITU
Radio Regulations, for accommodating requests for new DBS systems at reduced-spacing orbital locations.
Instead, such requests can be processed using the first-come, first-served procedures for DBS service.
The Commission concludes that the potential benefits of adopting additional rules requiring existing DBS service providers to accommodate operations at reduced orbital spacing are outweighed by the potential harms to existing subscribers to DBS service. As an initial matter, it is not clear that access to additional DBS orbital locations is needed to introduce new video programming services since DBS
subscribership is dropping in the United States as the marketplace for the distribution of video programming over the internet continues to grow and other opportunities exist to provide new video programming services in the United States in several frequency bands already allocated for satellite services. These include the 17/24 GHz BSS reverse band, which is specifically allocated for the provision of video programming, as well as frequency bands allocated for Ka-band GSO FSS. Furthermore, the proposals made by proponents for additional rules may require changes to the equipment currently used to provide DBS services
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