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,

MSS Spectrum News Archives - Moves by Clearwire and FCC oversight could make Harbinger's spectrum gamble look like a very bad bet.

November 9th 2010

"When Barack Obama’s National Broadband Plan was published in March, wireless broadband spectrum was identified as crucial in helping the US to realise its broadband goals. A chunk of this spectrum had been reserved for mobile satellite services (MSS).

Yet due to the expense of creating a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network, it had remained largely unused.

Even so, because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had provided this Spectrum Free of Charge, many observers believed it would be extremely valuable if conditions regarding its use for terrestrial services were eventually relaxed. Chief among them was Philip Falcone and Harbinger, his New York hedge fund.

Harbinger's bullishness was apparent when it bought SkyTerra, a struggling MSS operator, in the same month Mr Obama revealed his broadband plan. SkyTerra had reported a net loss of US$64m on revenues of just US$8m in the final quarter of 2009.

Yet Harbinger had realised the Spectrum SkyTerra owned would have considerable value if the FCC allowed it to be used for a so-called ancillary terrestrial component (ATC).

Eager to put the MSS Spectrum to effective use on the ground, and help move the National Broadband Plan forwards, the FCC altered regulations regarding its usage to suit Harbinger's needs at the same time it approved the hedge fund's takeover of SkyTerra for just US$263m.

Following the acquisition, Harbinger launched a new business called LightSquared – aimed at becoming a national wireless broadband network operating an exclusively wholesale business and expected to cost US$7bn to build.

Soon afterwards, Mr Falcone was suggesting that SkyTerra's spectrum could be worth as much as US$3–5bn. His lofty valuation was based on the expectation that a similar but smaller chunk of spectrum held by Terrestar – another satellite company 30% owned by Harbinger – could be valued at between US$1.5bn and US$2bn, even if Terrestar went bankrupt (always a possibility given the FCC's stringent conditions that spectrum must be used or rescinded).

Last month, it did just that, only weeks after launching its first commercial dual-mode handset (working on both satellite and terrestrial networks) through mobile-phone operator AT&T. With the value of Terrestar's Spectrum set to become the subject of intense scrutiny in the coming months, Mr Falcone's bold assertions could be put to the test.

LightSquared's many challenges

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Mr Falcone's business case comes from Clearwire.

Majority owned by US operator Sprint Nextel, Clearwire already operates its own wireless broadband network and is shopping its wholesale capacity to potential retail partners (it recently scored a deal with Best Buy, the world's largest electronics retailer).

LightSquared is not only playing catch-up from a network perspective but is also targeting many of the same potential customers. T-Mobile is a case in point.

The fourth-largest mobile-phone operator in the US, it is the sort of customer LightSquared craves.

What's more, because Sprint Nextel holds equity in Clearwire, and the FCC has ruled that neither AT&T nor Verizon can lease more than 25% of LightSquared's network, T-Mobile is the only one of the four major mobile-phone operators that could become a key anchor tenant for LightSquared.

Yet T-Mobile has reportedly been in talks with Clearwire about a partnership.

Perhaps more worrying for Mr Falcone is Clearwire's current spectrum sale, expected to be completed by the end of this month.

If it is true that Mr Falcone really wants to profit from the perceived value of LightSquared's spectrum (before ever having to run a real network), then Clearwire could deliver a huge blow to his spectrum arbitrage exit strategy by delivering the wrong kind of valuation benchmark.

While the FCC appears to have been on LightSquared’s side so far, its recent moves may also cause jitters at Harbinger.

In September, a company called Open Range, which relies on ATC spectrum owned by MSS operator Globalstar to operate its rural terrestrial wireless network, was denied a request to delay meeting ATC satellite criteria for a further 16 months.

Open Range has effectively been left in limbo by the decision and must now find other spectrum to offer its services.

Given the FCC's strict rollout targets for LightSquared's terrestrial and satellite services, the ruling against Open Range issues a stern warning to the Harbinger-backed company.

Although LightSquared has been busy in recent months, announcing a US$7bn network agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks, a chipset deal with Qualcomm and around US$2bn in debt and equity commitments, numerous developments could upset the business. Partnership with Clearwire could knock T-Mobile out of LightSquared's equation, while the outcome of Clearwire's Spectrum Sale could also make LightSquared look like a very bad hedge by Mr Falcone.

And deprived of a quick exit strategy, LightSquared could find the cost of actually building a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network to the FCC’s tight rollout targets proves too much. Particularly if all the big retail partners are gone."

Source of Nokia Siemens Networks, LightSquared, Clearwire Corp., Philip Falcone, Craig McCaw, Qualcomm, Open Range Post

http://www.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=ib3Article&pubtypeid=1162462501&article_id=1517583136&rf=0

So Was the Spectrum Free from the FCC or Not?

Clearwire Corp., Craig McCaw did not REALLY Exit? It was more of a Strategic Move to Make him and Eagle River Investors More Money, for it Looks Like Craig McCaw had inside information, in my Opinion... as Isn't T-Mobile hooked up with Philip Falcone and Harbinger Capital and won't T-Mobile be one of the MSS Spectrum Retailers for LightSquared ? Look Deep, Very Deep...