Attachment STA extension

This document pretains to SES-STA-20100709-00898 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Earth Station filing.

IBFS_SESSTA2010070900898_825767

Exhibit 1 REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY Following the successful launch of the TerreStar-1 satellite on July 1, 2009, TerreStar conducted and successfully completed, pursuant to grants of Special Temporary Authority (“STA”), satellite payload In-Orbit-Testing (IOT) activity. Since the third quarter of 2009, also pursuant to STAs, TerreStar has been engaged in “Phase II” SBN-IOT (Satellite Beamforming Network – In-Orbit-Testing) of its Ground Based Beam Forming (GBBF) and other subsystems. 1 TerreStar’s active STAs for SBN-IOT will expire on June 30, 2010. Due to the complex and ground-breaking nature of the GBBF and satellite base station technologies involved, TerreStar’s SBN-IOT test activities need to be extended beyond June 30. Accordingly, TerreStar is seeking further extension of the STAs until and including September 30, 2010. 2 The following three facilities will be used to continue SBN-IOT: (1) TerreStar-1, a Canadian-licensed satellite as to which TerreStar holds a letter of intent (“LOI”) authorization (Call Sign S2633) to serve the United States; (2) the 6.3-m and 9.3-m antennas associated with TerreStar’s licensed gateway earth station located in North Las Vegas, Nevada (Call Sign E070098); and (3) an unlicensed 1.8-m mobile earth terminal (“MET”) 3 that is co-located with TerreStar’s North Las Vegas gateway earth station. A copy of this exhibit accompanies each STA extension request TerreStar is filing in connection with SBN-IOT. The STA request form this exhibit is attached to identifies, for each STA extension request: (1) the time period for which an STA is sought; and (2) the facility for which an STA is sought. 4 The essence of the continuing SBN-IOT testing activity is described below: 1 TerreStar is currently operating under STA’s most recently extended on February 20, 2010, under File Nos. SES-STA-20100208-00166 and SES-STA-20100208-00167. At the time that it submitted those requests for further STA, TerreStar had included an additional further request to cover the operation of its Calibration Earth Station (“CES”) devices. TerreStar has completed the SBN-IOT of its CES units and is thus not concurrently submitting herewith a request to extend authority to operate those. 2 Comsearch has extended the coordination of the operations to which this STA pertains through the period for which TerreStar is currently seeking extension. 3 The 1.8-m MET, operating in a temporary fixed mode, uses a custom antenna that is designed for the express purpose of testing service link performance on TerreStar-1. The 1.8-m MET is entirely different from the MET handsets that will be used by TerreStar’s customers. 4 Based on discussions with the FCC’s staff, and in light of the fact that no FCC radio license has been issued for TerreStar-1, TerreStar did not file any request for special temporary authority for the satellite in connection with IOT. Rather, TerreStar identified in the initial IOT STA requests the parameters for TerreStar-1’s operations during IOT that deviate from the parameters on which the LOI authorization for TerreStar-1 are based. 1

Exhibit 1 • SBN IOT is largely completed. The continuing work involves over-the- satellite debugging and performance improvement of the GBBF and related element channel amplitude/phase calibration and pointing subsystems. • New engineering software will need to be uploaded at the North Las Vegas facilities and regression tests performed to ensure its proper functioning. Engineers are also troubleshooting and resolving certain minor GBBF problems. In addition to the SBN-IOT test activity described above, for the information of the Commission, TerreStar has also been engaged, in parallel, in the end-to-end testing of its satellite system under the existing licenses for its North Las Vegas (NLV) gateway station and the blanket authority for integrated handsets (i.e., user terminals). Extensive voice and data test calling is occurring using Ku-band feeder channels and S-band service links. Major ground subsystems being tested include the satellite base station sytem (S-BSS), satellite beam access subsystem _SBAS), other GBBF components , handsets, and the Core Network. A new version of the S-BSS is been tested and final steps are being taken to complete adjustments necessary for improved system capability and performance. Finally, TerreStar handsets, with the trade name Genus, continue to be subject to numerous satellite field tests to improve functionalities and performance. 2


Document Created: 2010-06-28 16:23:33
Document Modified: 2010-06-28 16:23:33
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