WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission today said Mobile Satellite Ventures L.P. received the first ever authorization to operate land-based wireless systems to supplement satellite operations, a ruling that comes amid regulatory and court challenges to agency regulations allowing hybrid satellite facilities.
The FCC said the ancillary terrestrial component license “will enable MSV to offer high-quality, affordable mobile services to users inside buildings and in urban areas, in addition to providing MSS [mobile satellite service] in rural areas.”
As such, MSS-ATC poses a potential competitive threat to mobile-phone carriers.
The cellular industry, partially successful in persuading federal regulators to reclaim some spectrum from the shaky MSS sector, argues it is wrong to allow MSS operators to use frequencies acquired for free for land-based wireless networks when mobile-phone carriers have had to spend billions of dollars for permits.
The FCC has yet to rule on petitions for reconsideration of the MSS-ATC rule. The petitions were filed just more than a year ago. Meantime, a suit brought by Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless cannot move forward in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until the FCC rules on reconsideration petitions.
Billionaire cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, lead investor in ICO Global Communications Ltd. (an MSS licensee) and now a force in the fixed-wireless business, first proposed ATC to federal regulators several years ago as a means to salvage the financially struggling mobile satellite industry.
