Home  MAB News Archive  Reminder: Register your C-Band Satellite Dishes
Reminder: Register your C-Band Satellite Dishes
June 8th, 2018 | Posted in: Engineering & ABIP, June 2018
Radio and Television stations that receive programming via large C-band satellite dishes should consider registering their downlinks prior to July 18 to protect their reception.
On April 19, the FCC issued a public notice freezing the filing of new or modification applications for fixed-satellite service (FSS) earth station licenses, receive only earth station registrations and fixed microwave licenses in the 3.7-4.2 GHz frequency band. The purpose of this freeze is to preserve the current landscape of authorized operations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band pending Commission action as part of its ongoing inquiry into the possibility of permitting mobile broadband use and more intensive fixed use of the band.
In a post on the Barry Mishkind's BDR (read here) Broadcaster and tech consultant Karen Johnson of LinkUp Communications says it's about the proposed new 5G wireless service, and "in a nutshell, broadband companies like Verizon and Google are putting pressure on the FCC to hand over or sell all of these frequencies to major Internet providers." So there's a 90-day freeze on new receive-only earth stations in the C-Band, while the FCC sifts through comments.
Johnson advises that in the short-term, "Take care of business…if you own one or more C-band downlinks, make sure each one is registered." The deadline for that is July 18. More about the situation (and how to register existing earth stations) from attorney Michelle McClure at CommLawBlog here.
In an article on Tom Taylor's daily newsletter "Tom Taylor Now," its reported that National Public Radio (NPR) told FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly that its PRSS (Public Radio Satellite System) is "an indispensable link" between it and hundreds of NPR member stations. And that "the non-commercial, non-profit public radio system cannot afford alternative means of program distribution, such as terrestrial/fiber networks." Those alternatives are not just more expensive. It says "for the "rural and remote part of the country where fiber does not reach, there are no alternatives to satellite distribution, regardless of cost."
« ABIP Training Day will be Offered June 14
What Anthony Bourdain Taught Me About Radio Broadcasting »