Globalstar Lease Terrestrial Spectrum capacity to Open Range

" .... What Globalstar did was to lease Terrestrial Spectrum capacity to Open Range Communications, which then went to the Agriculture Department's "

"Jeffrey Krauss explains Satellites and Stimulus Loans

In May 2009, I wrote optimistically about the expected resurgence of the mobile satellite service (MSS) business.

Well, it didn’t happen. Not only that, but Globalstar recently had part of its satellite authorization yanked by the FCC.

The fallout from that FCC decision may cause a huge default in the federal broadband stimulus funding, resulting in a big political mess.

Globalstar is the only MSS operator that did deploy ATC service – at least sort of.

What Globalstar did was to Lease Terrestrial Spectrum capacity to Open Range Communications, which then went to the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) for a Broadband Stimulus Loan.

And based on their deal with Globalstar and their plan to deploy WiMAX technology in 546 rural areas, they got the loan – to the tune of $266 million.

While that was going on, Globalstar was at the FCC asking for waivers of some of the FCC ATC rules.

The FCC insists that the terrestrial ATC service be “ancillary” to the satellite service, and the Commission has a number of rules in place to make sure that the spectrum is not used for a solely terrestrial mobile service.

Globalstar’s existing satellites could not meet those requirements, but it promised that it would have a new system of 24 satellites deployed by July 1, 2010, that could.

So in 2008, the FCC granted Globalstar a 16-month waiver of the ATC rules.

But the new system has not been launched.

The FCC found that the real cause for delay was that Globalstar ran into financing problems and failed to make payments to Thales for several months, so Thales accordingly slowed work.

A further complicating factor is that the existing Globalstar Satellites are broken.

The Globalstar System uses spectrum around 1610 MHz (“L-band”) for uplinks and 2490 MHz (“S-band”) for downlinks. But the S-band transmitters on the satellites have become “increasingly impacted by degradation.” That is to say that there are periods of time each day, at any given location, where they don’t work.

Then in December 2009, Globalstar revealed the satellite launch delays to the FCC and asked for an additional 16-month waiver of the ATC requirements.

In mid-September 2010, the FCC came back with a loud “NO” and revoked Globalstar’s ATC authorization, which had the effect of canceling the Spectrum Lease.

The FCC gave Open Range until January 2011 to continue in operation while it finds other spectrum to use.

Globalstar service has been on a downward spiral service degradation caused from radiation. GlobalStar planned to re-use some of their satphone frequencies on terrestrial towers — but the spectrum is supposed to be “ancillary” not “in lieu of” satellite service. Six, 2nd generation Globalstar satellites were launched on Oct 20th.

A total of four launches of six satellites each will be conducted.

Globalstar chose Thales Alenia Space to design and deliver 48 second-generation satellites to provide voice and data services.

The other satellites in the Globalstar-2 Constellation are now under construction at Thales Alenia Space facilities in France and Italy.

Globalstar was assigned the 1610-1615.5 MHz and 2487.5-2493 MHz band for Globalstar ATC.

The FCC modified Globalstar’s license to permit use of WiMAX, allowing Open Range Communications to deploy their rural broadband service.

Globalstar holds a space station license for the Globalstar 1.6/2.4 GHz MSS system via Low Earth Orbit Satellites.

FCC rulemaking permits Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) licensees in the 2 GHz (1990-2025 MHz and 2165-2200 MHz) bands (where ICO and Terrastar operate), the L-band (1525-1544 MHz/1545-1559 MHz) and 1626.5-1645.5 MHz/1646.5-1660.5 MHz) bands (where Inmarsat and Skyterra operate), and the “Big LEO” (1610-1626.5 MHz and 2483.5-2500 MHz) bands (where Globalstar and Iridium operate).

ATC authority would potentially allow Globalstar to use 11 MHz of its 1.6/2.4 GHz satellite radio frequencies for a complementary terrestrial wireless service.

ATC authority will allow ICO to use about half of its 20 megahertz (2010-2020 MHz and 2180-2190 MHz), for two-way terrestrial communications (pdf).

ATC authority will allow SkyTerra to use about half of its 20 megahertz (2000-2010 MHz and 2190-2200 MHz). Their TerreStar-1 planned to use Nokia Siemens to provide I-HSPA gear for the terrestrial portion of the network which will be deployed as UMTS wideband CDMA.
LightSquared launched SkyTerra 1 in mid November, 2010 and uses the 1.6 GHz band (with 10 MHz available for ATC-based LTE service).

Globalstar and Iridium are the two LEO constellations. TerreStar, Lightsquared and ICO are geosynchronous satellite platforms.

LightSquared of Reston, Virginia, launched SkyTerra 1 in mid November, 2010. The craft is one of two that will provide Satphone Service in the second half of next year from startup LightSquared.

The first order of business for Lightsquared is to get their Massive Antenna unfurled. Their 22-meter (72 feet) L-band reflector-based antenna — the largest commercial antenna reflector to be put into service – is currently stuck.

LightSquared’s plans for a ground-based cellular network that will include approximately 40,000 base stations. About 10 MHz of their 20 MHz bandwidth would be devoted to 1.6GHz LTE service — if they find an interested party to build the nationwide network.

The FCC initially proposed opening up the 90MHz of spectrum as part of its National Broadband Plan.

The 90MHz chunk of spectrum is the second largest that the FCC is seeking to open as part of its national plan, after the 120MHz from broadcast TV airwaves.

In May, the Commission made another 25MHz of satellite spectrum available for mobile broadband by Changing its Wireless Communications Service (WCS) Rules.

Source of MSS Spectrum Post

http://www.dailywireless.org/2010/12/10/mss-stuck-in-space/

FCC Probe, Satphone Spectrum for 4G, Alvarion, Open Range, WiChorus Ropes Open Range, Broadband Satellites, SkyTerra, AT&T/TerreStar, WildBlue, roadband Stimulus Loan,Globalstar, Terrestrial Spectrum, Open Range, Globalstar ATC, Globalstar and Lightsquared, Open Range - Lightsquared, Thales Alenia Space,ICO, TerreStar, Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital Partners,

Globalstar Comments on FCC Waiver for LightSquared's Use of MSS Spectrum for Terrestrial Broadband

"

FCC Waiver Permits LightSquared to Offer Single Mode Terrestrial Only Broadband Products and Services Using Mobile Satellite Spectrum

COVINGTON, La., Jan. 31, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Globalstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:GSAT), a leading provider of mobile satellite voice and data services to businesses, government, and individuals today announced the Company's response to the recent U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to grant LightSquared Subsidiary LLC (LightSquared), a conditional waiver of the Integrated Service Rule. L. Barbee Ponder, General Counsel and VP of Regulatory Affairs, Globalstar, Inc. stated, "With this order LightSquared has been granted the authority to provide terrestrial only wireless broadband services using mobile satellite spectrum. This relaxation of the gating criteria for LightSquared is necessitated by the explosive growth of spectrum-hungry mobile broadband devices. We look forward to the FCC extending similar flexibility to other mobile satellite services providers including Globalstar. "We are also pleased with the FCC's continued recognition that the L-band portion of the mobile satellite spectrum is suitable for delivering mobile broadband to consumers and helping meet the Commission's significant spectrum objectives outlined in the National Broadband Plan." About Globalstar, Inc. With over 425,000 subscribers, Globalstar is a leading provider of mobile satellite voice and data services. Globalstar offers these services to commercial customers and recreational consumers with coverage in more than 120 countries around the world. The Company's products include mobile and fixed satellite telephones, simplex and duplex satellite data modems, the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger™ and flexible airtime service packages. Many land based and maritime industries benefit from Globalstar with increased productivity from remote areas beyond cellular and landline service. Global customer segments include: oil and gas, government, mining, forestry, commercial fishing, utilities, military, transportation, heavy construction, emergency preparedness, and business continuity as well as individual recreational users. Globalstar data solutions are ideal for various asset and personal tracking, data monitoring and SCADA applications. For more information regarding Globalstar, please visit Globalstar's web site atwww.globalstar.com The Globalstar, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=8183 CONTACT: For further media information: Globalstar, Inc. Dean Hirasawa (985) 335-1505 Dean.hirasawa@globalstar.com Skyya Communications Susan Donahue (646) 454-9378 Susan.donahue@skyya.com " Source https://globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=212259

Spectrum Play is 'Stimulus Funding' for MSS-ATC Operators

"Spectrum. It is the new gold of the information age and has become a highly sought-after resource. So much so, the main goal of the U.S. National Broadband Plan is to find new spectrum allocations for broadband wireless access networks.

This move by the U.S. Government may have simultaneously opened up a sizable new revenue stream for MSS-ATC operators and saved many from exiting the business, but at the expense of a true MSS-ATC play.

With its recent proposal to free spectrum allocated to MSS operators for terrestrial users, the FCC is carefully extending the precedent-setting Globalstar, Inc.-OpenRange Ltd. agreement it approved in 2008 to other players in the industry.

This agreement allows leasing of MSS-ATC Spectrum for terrestrial-only secondary leasing, in this case for WiMAX in rural areas.

Unlike terrestrial-only networks, the FCC required Globalstar-OpenRange to meet the ATC ‘gating criteria’ – offering a dual-mode device and continuous broadband satellite coverage. However, the FCC has granted several interim waivers for both of these criteria, extending compliance deadlines.

Thus, it looks like the Globalstar-OpenRange agreement seems to be the first instance that the FCC is willing to allow decoupled MSS and terrestrial spectrum lease agreements.

A decoupled MSS-ATC offering is what NSR considers as the saving grace of the MSS-ATC operators, especially those operating as a ‘going concern’ or simply unable to pay debt and thus filing for bankruptcies, as was often the case in the first wave of MSS growth in the late 1990s and early this century.

But how much revenue can spectrum sales generate, and what is the impact on the MSS operators with ATC allocations?

Using previous spectrum auctions as a benchmark, NSR notes in its recent Mobile Satellite Services 6th Edition report that MSS-ATC operators will find enough funding through secondary lease agreements to pay debts, and/or begin satellite service offerings.

As shown in the chart below, of the expected total revenues from secondary leases, SkyTerra (now LightSquared) has the most to gain, as new leasing revenue can significantly pay off its current estimated debt obligations.

As another example, NSR’s spectrum holding valuation for Globalstar exceeds the entire reported capitalized expenditures for its new satellite constellation. With such high potential revenues, MSS-ATC operators will likely lease the maximum amount of their ATC allocations to terrestrial operators.

However, leasing MSS-ATC spectrum comes at a cost, as NSR feels MSS-ATC leasing agreements will sacrifice any potential for a large, robust MSS-ATC sector. As ATC leases push services further into rural areas, consumers will increasingly choose the lower cost ATC system, eventually eliminating the general demand for dual-mode devices. Instead, the few MSS-ATC enabled devices entering the market will need to cater to those requiring robust, redundant communications infrastructure – first responders or government agencies, both slow to adopt new technologies.

The Bottom Line
NSR certainly expects MSS-ATC operators to take advantage of secondary leasing agreements and monetize their MSS Spectrum Holdings. In doing so, secondary leasing agreements will provide the necessary funding for MSS-ATC operators to survive, to pay debts, and/or to offer satellite services. However, MSS-ATC operators may have to sacrifice any hopes of the general public utilizing full MSS-ATC enabled devices. One thing is clear; those betting MSS-ATC would be a spectrum play can now collect their winnings. "

Source

http://www.nsr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=384:spectrum-play-is-stimulus-funding-for-mss-atc-operators&catid=94:industry-updates-2010&Itemid=153

.. get it Started, Satellite Up and Kick Back and Let Walmart Sell Spectrum Like Mad..

SATELLITES And Spectrum- MSS Spectrum

Mar 1, 2003

"The mobile satellite services industry — once the sweetheart of the financial world in the late 1990s — believes it can claw its way back to respectability in the telecom arena now that the Federal Communications Commission has allowed MSS operators to reuse their frequencies and offer cellular-like service alongside their satellite services.

The MSS industry has argued for two years that incorporating an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) would solve a fundamental problem plaguing the MSS industry — operators' inability to penetrate buildings with satellite signals, a technical shortfall that had a tremendous constraint on demand and resulted in higher operating and equipment costs.

“We were trying to learn from some of the mistakes made by others,” said Carson Agnew, president and chief operating officer with MSV, the first company to file a petition with the FCC to allow ATCs.

“We concluded the problem was that satellite signals were blocked too easily, and we had to find some way to provide coverage. If we could do that, then more customers would buy from us, and we would have economies of scale.”

These MSS petitions sparked heavy debate on Capitol Hill. Terrestrial wireless operators such as Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless vehemently opposed ATCs, arguing that the FCC gave the MSS industry free spectrum to provide satellite services-not terrestrial services that could potentially compete with them.

In late January, the commission attempted to please both sides by giving ATC capability to MSS players in the 2 GHz, Big LEO and L-bands but reallocating 30 megahertz of MSS spectrum in the 2GH band to the terrestrial wireless industry. The FCC reasoned that ATCs would increase the efficiency of MSS spectrum and improve coverage, aid in homeland defense and open the MSS market up to innovative services. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association vowed to legally challenge the ruling.

MSS operators believe their ability to incorporate ATCs into their satellite systems will attract the necessary investment to launch the next generation of services, which will include high-speed data capabilities. ICO, bailed out of bankruptcy in 2000 by cellular mogul Craig McCaw and a group of international investors, had said it survival depended on the FCC's ruling.

“It makes no sense to try something that we know is a failure,” Gerry Salemme, vice president with ICO said in a recent interview when asked what the company's plans would be if the FCC failed to approve ATCs.

Bankrupt Globalstar has attracted a group of five lenders who will provide $10 million in debtor-in-posession funding to help Globalstar emerge from Chapter 11. The lenders include Blue River Capital, Columbia Ventures, ICO Investment, Iridium Investors and Loeb Partners. A previous deal with real estate investment firm New Valley fell apart because Globalstar's creditor committee believed the company was worth more in light of the FCC's favorable ruling.

“We believe that [the FCC's ruling], together with our record of continuing growth despite challenging circumstances, has helped to attract the interest of potential new investors, and that this new financing agreement will be an important step toward our successful emergence from bankruptcy,” Olof Lundberg, chairman of Globalstar, said in a recent statement.

An Iridium spokesman said the company is still determining the impact of the FCC's ruling on its business.

“We made it clear. The problem was financing,” said Lon Levin, vice president of regulatory affairs with MSV, one of the industry's few players operating in the black. “The business is a modest one, and to have to put the next generation of satellites up would have cost far more than the business could have supported.”

Still, it's difficult to find many in the telecommunications industry who believe ATCs will ensure the survival of the MSS industry. Adding terrestrial capability requires MSS companies to invest in and build out infrastructure on the ground unless they team up with the very carriers who opposed the FCC's ruling.

Others argue that the market for anywhere communications has a limited audience, regardless of whether customers can use the services inside buildings.

“I look at it as a stay of execution,” said John Byrne, wireless analyst with Kagan World Media. “The ability to have a terrestrial connection helps, but it doesn't ensure survival. They still have to attract people. To try and tap into new or old market segments is a tough sell.”

Rough road

To even say the MSS industry is a beleaguered one is an understatement. Iridium, the sector's poster child in the late 1990s, spent $5 billion to create a service allowing mass-market customers to use portable phones around the world. It was the master of marketing, hyping the demand for its wares so much that many investors became rich from the company's stock before it even launched service in 1998.

A year later, the hype turned into a miserable reality. Iridium filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 1999, followed by ICO Communications two weeks later. Globalstar filed the next year. While players emerged from bankruptcy with more focused business plans and more efficient cost structures, the vertical segments MSS operators began targeting are too small to offset the enormous costs associated with operating a constellation of satellites, many operators complained.

MSV and ICO began floating this idea of offering terrestrial services. McCaw drummed up some influential supporters in Washington who were beginning to see ATC proposals as a solution to a key public policy issue-bridging the “digital divide.” In 2001, the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on the topic.

Hope shines through tragedy

In the wake of the FCC's ruling, all MSS players see a large opportunity in the Homeland Defense Market in light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

MSV, which plans to have it next-generation satellites up in the sky and incorporate ATCs by 2005, sees its existing customer base that includes safety agencies and groups such as the American Red Cross expanding because it will have the ability to offer sleeker and cheaper devices.

MSV also has a capability no one else has: multipoint dispatch service that allows groups such as global emergency agencies to create a talk group of up to 10,000 users globally.

“When we talked to people on the Hill about this, we told them to imagine being in South Dakota on the campaign trail and being able to get everyone on the same talk group at the end of the day,” said Levin. “People going to a forest fire from different jurisdictions can talk to different groups on the fly.”

Globalstar has already provided in-building coverage through dual-mode handsets that operate on Cellular and Satellite Networks, and at one time was using carrier partners such as Vodafone to sell the service.

Its carrier partners had a difficult time selling the service because the bulky handsets operated in cellular mode using one phone number and airtime plan and in satellite mode using a second phone number and yet another different airtime plan.

Globalstar hopes Terrestrial Operators will see a new business opportunity from the FCC's new ruling.

ICO's Salemme also believes his company can assist terrestrial operators by bolstering their government-mandated enhanced 911 deployments in areas where terrestrial networks won't reach.

ICO, which has been spending money in anticipation of the FCC's ruling, plans to launch 11 next-generation satellites.

While the MSS industry's new survival plan is skeptical to many, it's difficult to discount the Midas touch of Craig McCaw.

His sheer will might just make the MSS Industry fly again."

Source of Craig McCaw, MSS Spectrum,

http://urgentcomm.com/mag/radio_satellites_spectrum/

Craig McCaw is Way More Involved in the Current MSS Spectrum Industry then It Seems, More on that Later...

Crystal L. Cox

Investigative Blogger

Crystal@CrystalCox.com