NEW YORK-SkyBridge L.P., Bethesda, Md., received the go-ahead at the recent International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference-2000 for its non-geostationary broadband access satellite system.
“More than 140 countries attending the WRC-2000 adopted the technical and regulatory parameters which will allow [non-GEO] satellite systems, [like] SkyBridge, to operate compatibly with geostationary satellites and terrestrial systems in the Ku-band (10 GHz-18 GHz) spectrum,” the company said.
The conference, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in May, also adopted power limits on GEO systems to protect non-GEO systems. At a November 1999 meeting in preparation for WRC-2000, there was general consensus that technical analysis demonstrated “new satellite systems such as SkyBridge could be accommodated in the Ku-band without causing harmful interference to existing users,” SkyBridge said.
The 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference already had established provisional power limits that non-geostationary satellite systems operating in the Ku-band would have to meet in order to protect GEO satellite and terrestrial services operating in the same spectrum.
“The action of the WRC-2000 is the final international decision enabling competitive and innovative satellite solutions in the Ku-band,” said Pascale Sourisse, president and chief executive officer of SkyBridge.
“We now look forward to the adoption of rules and actions on the pending SkyBridge license application in the United States.”
SkyBridge is building a $6.1 billion network that ultimately will have a fleet of 80 satellites orbiting at an altitude of 913 miles. It plans to first launch commercial service in temperate latitudes in 2003.
