Attachment letter

letter

REPLY submitted by EchoStar

letter

2005-04-19

This document pretains to SAT-AMD-20010302-00019 for Amended Filing on a Satellite Space Stations filing.

IBFS_SATAMD2001030200019_428576

                                    STEPTOE &JOHNSON«
                                          arrorneys at taw


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April§ 19, 2005                           intomatonal Bureed
                                                                                      APR 1 9 2005
                                                                                  redeal Communceton Connison
Via HAND DELIVERY                                                                        Offect Searniry

Marlene H. Dortch
Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, W.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
Re:     Mobile Satellie Ventures Subsidiary LLC
        File Nos. SAT—LOA—19980702—00066, SAT—AMD—20001214—00171, File No. SAT—AMD—
        20010302—00019, SAT—AMD—20031 1 18—00335, SAT—AMD—20040209—00014; SAT—AMD—
        20040928—00192; Call Sign 2358
        EchoStar Satellite L.L.C.
        File Nos. SAT—LOA—20030827—00179, SAT—AMD—20031 126—00343; Call Sign $2492
Dear Ms. Dortch,
        EchoStar Satellite LL..C. (*EchoStar") hereby responds to the April 4, 2005 letter of Mobile
Satellte Ventures Subsidiary LLC (°MSV") filed in connection with the above applications."

        In light ofMSV‘s assertion that these applications are mutually exelusive (a conclusion that
EchoStar disputes), EchoStar can no longer take no position on the proposed "two—track" reatment of
MSV*s pending replacement application for its L—band authorization at 101° W.L., which includes a
request for additional alloted, extended Ku—band frequencies. As EchoStar explained in ts March 25,
2008 lettr, the reason for this is simple.


        ‘ Letter from Jennifer Manner, MSV to Marlene H. Dortch, FCC (Apr. 4., 2005) ("April 4, 200
Letter®),




washmaron          +.    new vork    +   rwornix       +.   tos anorits    +   tonpon       +    srusstis


                                                                                  STEPTOE &JOHNSON«
 Marlene H. Dortch
 April 19, 2005
 Page 2

        If grant of MSV‘s feeder ink proposal were deemed to preclude other users of the allotted
 extended Ku—band spectrum at 101° W.L., the two tracks requested by MSV would raise an intolerably
high risk that this spectrum will be warchoused. Once MSV‘s request for additional frequencies is
decoupled from its replacement satellite application, the business consequences to MSV of
noncompliancewith the FCC‘s milestone requirements for the allotted extended Ku—band frequencies
would be significantly lessened. For example,in the event that MSV is unable to obtain funding for a
satellite that utlizes the additional frequencies, it would be able to give up its authorization for the
additional frequencies with litle risk to ts existing L~Ku—band MSS operations.

        Accordingly, if the Commission were to accept MSV*s contention that there is mutual
exclusivity, it should treat MSV*s entire "replacement" application as a fresh application because it
requests additional frequencies. This ensures that the risk of warchousing described above is minimized
and that MSV has the proper incentives to timely utilize all of te spectrum thatit has asked for.
       Moreover, MSV‘s premise that the two applications are mutually exclusive is incorrect. As
previously submitted, EchoStar believes that both ts and MSV‘s proposed use of the allotted, extended
Ku—bandfrequencies at 101° W.L. can be coordinated. Indeed, MSV has acknowledged at least the
possibility of sharing in both an earlier filing? and in its April 4,2005 letter," and its backtracking from
that acknowledgment is counterproductive. MSV now attempts to discount the possibility of
coordination by raising several immaterial objections. First, in its April 4, 2005 letter, MSV asserts that
EchoStar‘s sharing proposal "is simply too speculative and undefined for the Bureau to grant EchoStar a
license."". However, the same letter goes on to summarize EchoStar‘s sharing proposalin some detail ——
namely, the spatial separation of EchoStar‘s spot beams from MSV*s feeder link earth station locations
so as to avoid interference." A more specific proposalis not possible at this ime because MSV‘s feeder
link earth station locations have not yet been finalized. Second, MSV also complains that grant of
EchoStar‘s application would limit itsflexibilityin the deployment of additional feeder link earth
stations in the future. It is not clear how many additional feeder link earth stations there will be
(especially since the establishment ofadditional earth stations would likely require requests for waivers
of footnote NG104), but MSV‘s concems can be easily addressed —— upon MSV obtaining authority for
an additional feeder link earth station and with due notice to EchoStar, EchoStar would simply tum off

       * Comments of Mobile Satellite Ventures Subsidiary LLC at 6 (*MSV agrees with EchoStar that
sharing may be possible ... ) filed in SAT—LOA—20040210—00015 (filed Apr. 26, 2003).

       * April 4, 2005 Letter at 3 (°MSV continues to be willing to discuss the potential to share
frequencies with EchoStar.")
       * 1. ar2
        14. at3. This proposalis not only discussed in the Technical Annex referred to by MSV, but
also in the


                                                                                 STEPTOE &JOHNSON«
 Mariene H. Dortch
 April 19, 2005
 Page3

 the spot beam(s)that would potentially interfere with MSV‘s operations.® The grant ofa license to
 EchoStar subject to coordination with MSV would thus permit uninhibited use ofthe spectrum by MSV
 for its feeder link operations and productive use ofthe spectrum by EchoStar.
         Thus, if the Commission were to accept EchoStar‘s contention that sharing is possible and that
 the applications are not mutually exclusive, it should proceed to grant EchoStar‘s application subject to
 coordination with MSV in the manner described above.
            Please contact the undersigned if you have any questions about the above.
                                                        Yours sincerely,
                                                             Fuuleaa t %'(7“—6’ /fim .
                                                        Pantelis Michalopoulos
                                                        Counselfor EchoStar Satellite L LC.

Copy to:
Thomas Tyez, International Bureau
Fem Jarmulnck, Intemational Bureau
Robert Nelson, International Bureau
Cassandra Thomas, Intemational Bureau
Jennifer Manner, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Mobile Satellite Ventures Subsidiary LLC
Bruce Jacobs and David Konzcal, Shaw Pittman LLP




            * This would be the case for the allotted, extended Ku—band frequencies for which MSV has
priority.



Document Created: 2005-04-21 14:16:27
Document Modified: 2005-04-21 14:16:27

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