Attachment Waiver-Analysis SES-STA-20100426-00474

Attachment Waiver-Analysis

This document pretains to SES-STA-20100426-00474 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Earth Station filing.

IBFS_SESSTA2010042600474_812644

Exhibit C
PETITION FOR WAIVER OF SECTION 25.137 AND 25.114 AND OF
THE U.S. TABLE OF FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS

I. TO THE EXTENT THEY APPLY, GOOD CAUSE EXISTS FOR A WAIVER OF
CERTAIN PORTIONS OF SECTIONS 25.137 AND 25.114

Universal Space Network, Inc. (USN) is provided limited legal and technical information
for the Comsat-BW2 Satellite.1 Pursuant to Section 25.137 of the Federal Communications
Commission’s (“Commission” or “FCC”) rules, the same technical information required by
Section 25.114 for U.S.-licensed space station, and certain legal information, must be submitted
by earth station applicants “requesting authority to operate with a non-U.S. licensed space station
to serve the United States…”2 USN seeks authority to support the needed Telemetry, Tracking,
and Control (“TT&C”) during launch and early orbit support (“LEOP”) of the Comsat-BW2
spacecraft from launch to geostationary parking , not commercial service to the United States,
and thus believes that Section 25.137 does not apply.

To the extent the Commission determines, however, that USN’s request for authority to
provide LEOP on a special temporary basis is a request to serve the United States with a non-
U.S-licensed satellite, USN respectfully requests a waiver of Sections 25.137 and 25.114 of the
Commission’s rules, to the extent that USN has not herein provided the information required by
these rules. 3 The Commission may grant a waiver for good cause shown.4 A waiver is therefore
appropriate if special circumstances warrant a deviation from the general rule, and such a
deviation will serve the public interest.

In this case, good cause for a waiver of portions of Section 25.114 exists. USN seeks
authority only to conduct LEOP support for Comsat-BW2. Thus, any information sought by
Section 25.114 that is not relevant to the LEOP – e.g., antenna patterns, energy and propulsion
and orbital debris - USN does not have. In addition, USN would not easily be able to obtain
such information because USN is not the operator of the Comsat-BW2 satellite, nor is USN in
contractual privity with that operator. Rather, USN has contracted with DLR (German Space
Agency), the satellite owner and the spacecraft is launched by CNES from French Guiana, to
support the GEO transfer portion in S-Band of the satellite prior to its commercial operation.

As evidenced by the Comsearch report attached to this request, USN has coordinated the
LEOP of the Comsat-BW2 satellite with potentially affected terrestrial operators. Moreover, as
with any STA, USN will conduct the LEOP on an unprotected, non-interference basis to
government operations.

________________________
1
FCC Form 312 Section B
2
47 C.F.R. § 25.137(a)
3
47 C.F.R. §§25.137 and 25.114
4
47 C.F.R. §1.3

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Because it is not relevant to the service for which USN seeks authorization, and because
obtaining the information would be a hardship, USN seeks a waiver of all the technical and legal
information required by Section 25.114, to the extent it is not provided herein. As noted above,
USN has provided the required information to the extent that it is relevant to the LEOP service
for which USN seeks authorization.

Good cause also exists to waive portions of Section 25.137, to the extent the information
required is not herein provided. Section 25.137 is designed to ensure that “U.S.-licensed satellite
systems have effective competitive opportunities to provide analogous services” in other
countries. Here, there is no service being provided by the satellite; USN is providing TT&C
while the satellite is on the way to it’s geosynchronous parking orbit. Thus, the purpose of the
information required by Section 25.137 is not implicated here. For example, Section 25.137(d)
requires earth station applicants requesting authority to operate with a non-U.S.-licensed space
station that is not in orbit and operating to post a bond. 5 The underlying purpose in having to
post a bond – i.e., to prevent warehousing of orbital locations by operators seeking to serve the
United States – would not be served by requiring USN to post a bond in order to conduct 3 days
of LEOP support of the Comsat-BW2 satellite.

It is USN’s understanding that Comsat-BW2 is licensed by DLR. Comsat-BW2 is a
German Armed Forces communications satellite, and is not intended to serve the United States.
Thus, the purpose of Section 25.137 – to ensure that U.S. satellite operators enjoy “effective
competitive opportunities” to serve foreign markets and to prevent warehousing of orbital
locations service the United States – will not be undermined by grant of this waiver request.

Finally, USN notes that it expects to communicate with the Comsat-BW2 satellite using
its U.S. earth station for a period of only 3 days. Requiring USN to obtain technical and legal
information from an unrelated party, where there is no risk of interference and the operation will
cease within 3 days would pose undue hardship without serving underlying policy objectives.
Given these particular facts, the waiver sought herein is appropriate.

____________________________________
5
47 C.F.R. §25.137(d)(4)

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II. GOOD CAUSE EXISTS FOR A WAIVER OF THE UNITED STATES
TABLE OF FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS

USN further requests a waiver of the United States Table of Frequency Allocations
("U.S. Table") as described in section 2.106 of the rules for the frequency bands 2025 – 2110
MHz (Earth-to-Space) and 2200 – 2290 MHz (Space-to-Earth).6 Section footnotes allow for
non-federal Government use of these bands in the United States on a case-by-case non-
interference basis. Such use by USN necessitates a waiver of the U.S. Table.

Good cause exists to grant USN a limited waiver of the U.S. Table to allow LEOP of the
Comsat-BW2 satellite. In considering request for case-by-case spectrum uses, the Commission
has indicated that is would generally grant such waivers “where there is little potential for
interference into any service authorized under the Table of Frequency Allocations and when the
case-by-case operator accepts any interference from authorized services.” 7 USN will coordinate
with other parties operating communication systems in compliance with the Table of Frequency
Allocations to ensure that no harmful interference is caused. USN seeks to operate only pursuant
to special temporary authorization and thus agrees to accept any interference from authorized
services. In summary, USN’s operation on a non-interference, non-protected basis support
waiver of the U.S. Table.

_______________________
6
47 C.F.R. §2.106
7
Previously approved STA’s for Universal Space Network SES-STA-20020725-01174; SES-STA-20021112-
02008; SES-STA-20040315-00475

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USN support of Comsat-BW2 from Hawaii

Comsat-BW2 launches from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), Kourou in French
Guyana on the ARIANE 5 launch vehicle. Nominal lift-off time schedule is: May 21st,
2010 at 22:01:00 UTC. USN will only support the Launch and Early Orbit (LEOP) phase
of the mission.

Sequence of events for support of Comsat-BW2 from USN-Hawaii:
Event Date Time
Launch 21-May 22:01:00 UTC
Separation 21-May 22:34:01 UTC
Hawaii AOS (pass#1) 23- May 05:29:19 UTC
Hawaii LOS 23- May 05:57:32 UTC
Orbital maneuver burn #1 23- May 11:10:10 UTC
Hawaii AOS (pass#2) 23- May 19:09:58 UTC
Hawaii LOS 24- May 07:20:21 UTC
Hawaii End of Mission 24- May 07:20:21 UTC

Detailed pass support
USN will support Comsat-BW2 for a total of 2 passes starting 22-May thru
24-May. Not all possible visibility times will be supported. Actual support details and
times for each pass are shown below.

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Document Created: 2010-04-26 11:20:23
Document Modified: 2010-04-26 11:20:23

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