The Federal Communications Commission’s International Bureau granted low-earth-orbit licenses to four companies, authorizing them to operate non-voice, non-geostationary mobile satellite systems, also known as little LEOs.
E-Sat Inc., Final Analysis Communications Services Inc., Orbital Communications Corp. and Volunteers in Technical Assistance each received little LEO licenses. The commission granted a fifth Little LEO applicant, Leo One USA Corp., a license in February.
Little LEO systems operate below 1 GHz and are able to send and receive short data-only messages from smaller and less expensive mobile user terminals than those used by big LEO systems, such as Iridium L.L.C. and Globalstar L.P.
“Overall, this has been a big milestone for this industry,” said Mike Ahan, chief executive officer of Final Analysis. “Now our excuse cannot be that there’s no license. We have to get our services up and running and let the customer benefit.”
First-time licensee Final Analysis said it is reviewing conditions of the license to make sure it blends with its business plan, Ahan said. The company hopes to launch and operate a 26-satellite system, called Faisat, to offer two-way data messaging, vehicle tracking and remote meter reading in 2000. Ahan said the company would like to add 6 more satellites to that system and eventually rename it.
Licensee E-Sat plans to offer data-messaging services to the gas and electric utility industry, data support of the direct-to-home broadcast-satellite service, environmental monitoring and other services.
Orbcomm and VITA both received the first round of Little LEO spectrum in 1992, along with another company that later was forced to return its spectrum because it could not meet the milestones necessary to offer service.
The FCC then initiated a second round of licensing to distribute the leftover little LEO spectrum. Five unlicensed companies applied, as did the remaining first-round winners. Because there was not enough leftover spectrum for all the applicants, the FCC struggled with how to dole out what was available.
Auctions were ruled out (because then other countries would auction their portion of that spectrum and the entire Little LEO industry would go bankrupt), and a lottery was considered unfair.
One second-round applicant withdrew and another was acquired by Orbcomm, which left two first-round applicants and three second-round applicants vying for the leftover spectrum.
These remaining applicants devised the spectrum-sharing plan, giving each their own spectrum allocation, which they must share with the Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
When the FCC approved this plan, the little LEO applicants had to submit an amended application detailing the changes in their respective system specifications to comply with the spectrum-sharing option.
“We really had to make sacrifices,” Ahan said. “The other way would have been auctions or no licensing at all.”
Orbcomm announced the extra spectrum it received will allow the company to launch and operate an additional 12 satellites to bring its entire constellation to 48. It intends to offer data and messaging services to customers globally once the system is operational, expected sometime in 1999.
The added satellites and heightened elevation will allow Orbcomm to improve service availability in the higher latitudes, such as Alaska, Northern Canada, Northern Europe and Russia, and also increase capacity in more moderate latitudes, the company said.
VITA is a nonprofit, humanitarian-aid organization that provides educational, health, environmental, disaster relief and data technical communications services in developing countries.
