Attachment telesat

telesat

SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD submitted by Telesat

telesat

2004-03-15

This document pretains to SAT-STA-20030903-00300 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Space Stations filing.

IBFS_SATSTA2003090300300_367409

SATSTA-20030903-00300 DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC DIRECTV 3 1 7 7 6 K STREET NW March 15, 2004 WASHINGTON, OC 20006 Inindl n@wrf.corn PHONE 202.719.7000 FAX 20 2.719.70Lg S2417 SATSTA-20040107-00002 1B2004000022 Virginia Office BY HAND DELIVERY DIRECTV ENTERPRISES, LLC 7925 JONES BRANCH DRIVE SUITE 6200 Managing Director MiLEAN, VA 22102 Attention: FOIA Officer PHONE 703.905.2800 FAX 703.905.2820 Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W., Room I-A835 Washington, DC 20554 www.wrf.com Re: Telesat Canada Opposition to Pegasus - Develooment Corporation Freedom of lnformation Act Request To whom it may concern: This letter is written on behalf of Telesat Canada (“Telesat”),’ to oppose the January 27,2004 letter request (“FOIA Request”) submitted on behalf of Pegasus Development Corporation (“Pegasus”).’ Pegasus seeks release, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. $ 552, et seq., and Section 0.461 of thc Commission’s rules, of documents submitted by DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC on October 7,2003, December 17,2003, December 18, 2003, and January l 3 >2004,’ under separate requests for confidential treatment. The materials dated October 7 , 2003, December 17,2003 and January 13,2004 pertain to a confidential commercial arrangement between DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC (“DIRECTV”) and Telesat (collectively, “the Parties”). These ncgotiatcd business documents contain highly sensitive commercial and financial infonnatioi, that ‘Telesat routinely safeguards and does not normally disclose to t l x public 111 fact, Telesat entcred into a non-disclosure agreement with DIRECTV to znsiirc t h c i i confidentiality. As such, the inaterials are entitled to protection from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 4.‘ Disclosure of this information as Pegasus requests would needlessly and unfairly compromise Telcsat’s legitimate commercial plans by bestowing an unfair advantage on prospective competitors and/or weaken Telesat’s negotiating position 1 Under Rule 0.459(i), “third party owners of materials submitted to the Commission by any other party inay participate in the proceeding resolving the confidentiality of the materials.” See 47 C.F.R. 4 0.459(i). Telesat is a party to the documents submitted by DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC. ’flius. Telesat has standing to oppose the FOIA request. Letter from Bruce Jacobs, Couiisel to Pegasus, to Managing Director, FCC (Jan. 27, 2004) (“Pegasus FOIA Request”). 3 The Pegasus FOIA Request erroneously requests documents allegedly submitted to the Commission on January 6 , 2004. There were no documents submitted to t h e Commission on this date. ’J‘elesatassunies that Pegasus meant the documents submitted on Jaii~iili.~ 13. 4 5 U.S.C. 4 522(b)(4).

~ Managing Director March 15,2004 Page 2 with potential business partners or customers. DIRECTV and Telesat, by making public certain portions of the confidential materials, have already satisfied Pegasus’ request for infomiation regarding whether “DLRECTV’s arrangement at [ 82” W.L.] could have a direct impact on Pegasus’ operations.”’ Pegasus thus has no legitimate interest in reviewing the remaining confidential matcrials. Telesal thus considers Pegasus’ continued request for access to the materials as an attempt to gain commercially sensitive inforniation Cor harassment purposes. As the International Bureau is aware, DIRECTV’s STA application to move the DIRECTV 3 satellite to a Canadian orbital position concerns the provision of ~irgently-neededbackup capacity for Telesat’s Nirniq 1 and Nimiq 2 satellites following an anomaly suffered on the latter early in 2003. More than six months after DLRECTV’s application to the Commission, and more than one year following the anomaly, Telesat remains without the necessary backup should there be a further in-orbit event. Therefore, Telesat respectfiilly urges lhc Commissioii not to cl’ I I o\v parties to unduly and unnecessarily use regulatory procedural tactics to dclay grant of an application which so obviously is in the public interest. For the foregoing reasons, ‘Telesat strongly opposes Pegasus’ FOlA Request. Sincerely, .. -.A Bert W, Rein Jennifer D. Hindin Attorneys for Telesat Canada cc: Roderick Porter, 1B Karl Kensinger, JB Jay Whaley, IB Steven Spaeth, IB Neil Dellar, OGC Bruce Jacobs, Esq. James Barker, Esq. Susan Eid, DIRECTV 5 Pegasus FOIA Request at 1 n. 1.


Document Created: 2004-04-06 18:09:01
Document Modified: 2004-04-06 18:09:01
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