Department soon to initiate call for interest in launching new DBS satellite

Within the next couple of weeks, Industry Canada will initiate a call for expressions of interest to launch and operate a new direct broadcast service (DBS) satellite using the soon-to-be-available broadcasting satellite service (BSS) band (17.3-17.8 GHz). At the beginning of April, the government filed documents with the International Telecommunication Union to gain access to the spectrum at a number of orbital positions. The BSS band was allocated at the World Radiocommunication Conference 10 years ago (WARC-92), but stipulations associated with the allocation indicated that the band couldn’t be used in the Americas region until April 1, 2007. The Canadian government won’t be able to put a satellite into use in that band until that same date. Canadian Government Orbital Position HoldingsExisting orbital resources 72.5°W - DBS 82°W - DBS 91°W - DBS 107.3°W - FSS 111.1°W - FSS 114.9°W - FSS 118.7°W - FSS 129°W - DBS 138°W - DBS New positions covered in ITU filings78°W85°W95°W 99°W 103°WSource: Industry CanadaCanada has already been allocated six DBS orbital positions, one which is currently occupied by the Nimiq satellite and a second will soon be filled by Telesat Canada with its Nimiq 2 bird. Much of the capacity on the second satellite is for satellite TV operator and anchor tenant Bell ExpressVu LP (see box on page 2 for a list of the orbital slots to which the Canadian government has the rights and the ones covered in its ITU filings). These slots were assigned to Canada and are referred to as plan bands. Under this new plan, Industry Canada has applied for the rights to the 17.3-17.8 GHz band in 14 orbital positions covering the Americas. Nine of the orbital slots in the filings are already under Canadian control and five are new ones. The 70.5 degrees west and 106.5 degrees west positions are not covered in this new round of applications. The department will cover all its bases, seeking access to the band not only in some new orbital slots, but existing ones already in Canadian control as well. "What we try to do is obviously cover the ones where we already have existing satellites, covering all the current planned DBS positions and the existing FSS positions. We have a few other that we thought might also be of interest that would provide good coverage of the Americas, for instance, or at least North America," explains Chantal Beaumier, the department’s director of space and international regulatory activities. By applying for so many orbital positions, the government is trying to provide for as much flexibility as possible in meeting the demands of the industry. "That’s part of why we will be seeking responses, expressions of interest, to see first of all if there’s an interest, where it would be and for what position," Beaumier states. This is a first-come, first-serve process that kicks in at the ITU, where access to particular slots isn’t guaranteed. "We initiated the process to gain international rights to the positions, but it is still subject to the full international coordination process, and the outcome of that process will determine which positions will be available for Canadian use," she explains. Overall interest in the new band in these positions has been expressed by just one operator so far, Beaumier admits. "We know that there is at least one party that wants to develop some of these positions, but at the same we realized that indeed the band would become available and we needed to do some planning ahead of time. So we proceeded not only based on that expression of interest, but what we thought would be the best (option), providing for as much flexibility as possible for any potential interest parties," she tells Report on Wireless. It’s uncertain how long the process will take before the Canadian government knows to which slots, if any, it will gain the rights. "That really depends on how many we have to coordinate and what the (level) of interest is. Usually, it is over a period of a few years," Beaumier explains. "It also depends much on the operators because they really carry a lot of the details like technical coordination. (The ITU goes) into a fair bit of detail between operators to sort out if they can operate without causing interference to each other."

Department soon to initiate call for interest in launching new DBS satellite

News | June 11, 2002

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