Advanced Television

Intelsat not targeting Asia with 5G C-band restructuring

September 4, 2018

By Chris Forrester

Intelsat’s share price is riding high (at about $22 per share) helped by optimism over a financial windfall flowing from the restructuring of some of its C-band capacity over the US. However, Intelsat says it has no intention of extending the C-band policy to its Asian markets.

The operator’s C-Band proposals for the US (made in a consortium with SES) provoked a strong condemnation from other Asian satellite operators, fearful that the reallocation of capacity in favour of 5G might spread to other parts of the world.

Terry Bleakley, Intelsat’s Regional VP for APAC, reported by SpaceTech Asia, says that Intelsat’s proposals are for the US alone. Bleakley says that Intelsat has 11 satellites operating over the Asia-Pac region, and 10 of them carry C-band transponders. He admitted that many of its customers wholly depend on C-band because of its superior rain fade abilities.

He added that the US is a near-unique market, and one that Intelsat covers from coast to coast, and with a single regulatory body (the FCC, which is now studying the Intelsat+SES proposals). He stressed that these conditions do not apply in the Asia-Pac region. Moreover, the APAC region is “notoriously complicated” with dozens of governments, structures and regulations, which made it near-impossible to act on a pan-regional basis.

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