SES documents submitted in the dispute between themselves and Intelsat over the division of C-band proceeds admit that the FCC decision to award some 50 per cent of the overall sum involved to Intelsat “could be bad for us”.

The statement was made in an email from a senior SES executive to company colleagues.

SES had earlier explained to the court that it was entitled to claim $1.8 billion in damages because of the pair’s ‘C-Band Alliance’ agreement as to how the revenues from the FCC would be divided. SES accused Intelsat of reneging on their 2017 contract over the reallocation of C-band frequencies over the US.

Michael Slade, a lawyer for Intelsat, argued in his opening statement that SES had been very well rewarded by the FCC’s decision, and was not deserving of any further cash. He told the court that the decision on how the FCC’s incentive payments were divided was entirely down to the FCC.

Slade argued that SES only supplied some 32 per cent of the C-band spectrum over the US yet received 41 per cent of the overall amount. Slade added that SES did not deserve any extra cash and had done extremely well from the FCC award – and they should have received less.

The trial will continue under Judge Keith Phillips.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Galactic in stock split
2. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
3. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
4. Optimism under threat at SES
5. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
6. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
7. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
8. IRIS2 already in trouble?
9. Intelsat contemplates next steps

Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Policy, Regulation

Tags: cband, court, FCC, Intelsat, SES