Attachment Surrender of DRB-4 (

Surrender of DRB-4 (

SURRENDER OF AUTHORIZATION

Surrender Letter

2011-07-27

This document pretains to SUR-NDR-20110727-00061 for Surrender (SUR-NDR) on a Surrender filing.

IBFS_SURNDR2011072700061_908060

July 27, 2011 BY ELECTRONIC FILING Marlene H. Dortch Office of the Secretary Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Re: Surrender of Space Station Authorization for DIRECTV RB-4 IBFS File Nos. SAT-LOA-19970605-00050, SAT-AMD-20051118-00225, SAT-AMD-20080114-00016, and SAT-AMD-20080321-00079 (Call Sign S2243) Dear Ms. Dortch: DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC (“DIRECTV”) hereby surrenders the authorization issued by grant stamp on July 28, 2009 to launch and operate DIRECTV RB-4, a 17/24 GHz BSS satellite, at the 110.9° W.L. orbital location. DIRECTV takes this action reluctantly, as it has to date proceeded diligently to develop its 17/24 GHz BSS assets. DIRECTV has satisfied all payment obligations under its satellite construction contract with Space Systems/Loral, and recently completed Critical Design Review of this satellite along with the two other 17/24 GHz BSS satellites it is authorized to operate. Now that this preliminary work has been done, DIRECTV would have to commit to a rapidly escalating payment schedule to, among other things, cover the cost of long lead items and begin actual construction of DIRECTV RB-4. Unfortunately, in its ongoing review of the U.S. priority for this satellite under the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) rules, DIRECTV has reached the conclusion that claims of other administrations with superior priority (including Canada, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) are increasingly likely to result in actual satellites with priority over DIRECTV either at or close to its assigned position. For example, Canada has licensed one 17/24 GHz BSS operator at 111.1° W.L. and another at 113° W.L. 1 In these circumstances, DIRECTV cannot justify proceeding further to develop this authorization given the substantial risk that its investment of hundreds of millions of dollars could be rendered essentially useless due to the inability to operate in the presence of non-U.S.- licensed systems with superior ITU priority. 2 1 See, e.g., materials available at Industry Canada website, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt- gst nsf/eng/sf09163 html. 2 DIRECTV has submitted evidence that it satisfied the first milestone in this authorization, but the Commission has not yet made a determination on that showing. See Letter from William M. Wiltshire to Marlene H. Dortch, IBFS File Nos. SAT-LOA-19970605-00050, et al. (July 26, 2010). Once the Commission makes such a determination, DIRECTV will make the appropriate arrangements to satisfy the remaining bond obligation. 1200 18TH STREET, NW | SUITE 1200 | WASHINGTON, DC 20036 | TEL 202-730-1300 | FAX 202-730-1301 | WILTSHIREGRANNIS.COM

WILTSHIRE & GRANNIS LLP Marlene H. Dortch July 27, 2011 Page 2 of 2 Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please direct them to me. Sincerely yours, /s/ William M. Wiltshire Counsel for DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC cc: Robert Nelson Andrea Kelly Stephen Duall Kathyrn Medley Chip Fleming


Document Created: 2019-05-31 03:11:41
Document Modified: 2019-05-31 03:11:41
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