Interference in the Ku-band
Last week a petition that floated up to the FCC prompted multiple meetings between the federal regulatory agency, Global VSAT Forum (GVF), and the European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA). The contents of the petition? A request by the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) and Winchester Cator, LLC (remember these, we’ll come back to them in a second) to allow shared, secondary terrestrial fixed service (FS) use of the 14.0-14.5 GHz band–a move that would cause harmful interference to fixed and mobile satellite-based services used by millions across the US.
The issue has been simmering for a few weeks now, with letters coming from the Satellite Industry Association since early June
So what dog does the UTC have in this fight? Well, they’re seeking access to the radio spectrum with a petition being circulating to gain support.
It doesn’t stop there, among the signatories of the petition is Winchester Cator, LLC, comprised of Jared Abbruzzese and Raj Singh, both of whom have been making all the wrong kind of news for a while now.
Jared Abbruzzese as been implicated in questionable dealings with Mobile Satellite Ventures (via Business Week), and Raj Singh was one of the owners of Motient, so he’s been at it for a while. Abbruzzese also got himself into some hot water with the New York State Legislature.
This surely won’t be the end of this saga. We’ll be sure to keep you updated.
