Intelsat Stokes Industry Fires with Surprise Intel Announcement

摘要

As we go to press on this edition of Via Satellite, the industry has been rocked by a major announcement by Intelsat and Intel, which sees the two companies submit a joint proposal in early October that would expand the use of 3700-4200 MHz C-band spectrum to terrestrial mobile services. In various discussions both on and off the record with major CEOs in satellite, it is clear there is far from universal support for what Intelsat has done. Spectrum is always a thorny issue for the satellite industry given the aggressive nature in which the wireless industry has targeted spectrum which has traditionally been the preserve of satellite. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.