A report from investment bank BNPP’s Sami Kassab says that October 16th is the likely date when satellite operator SES will receive about $2.99 billion as its share of the FCC’s C-band compensation scheme. SES is also involved in litigation over about $400 million from Intelsat in its claim for a larger percentage of the FCC’s C-band payment.

SES had already received $1 billion for its FCC Phase 1 payment for accelerated clearing of C-band frequencies over the US. This second, Phase II payment, is made because SES completed its clearance obligations in August which involved launching five new satellites and thousands of head-end filters and adjustments for continued reception of C-band signals.

SES will unveil its Q3 results on November 2nd, and Kassab says its full-year guidance remains constant. He also reported that SES expected the next two mPOWER satellites to launch later in October. However, Kassab stresses that there is still some doubt that the October date will be met. “Given the many delays [on mPOWER launches] we had in the past, we see little credibility in this expected timing. We believe the launch delays are linked to Boeing trying to fixing the technical issues reported in August.”

November 2nd might also see some update on what SES plans to do with the $3 billion cash input from the FCC.

Kassab said the bank expected Q3 to report a 6 per cent decline in SES’s Video division’s revenues. But he expected a 2 per cent growth in the operator’s increasingly important Networks division.

He also mentions that SES is continuing the search for a new CEO following Steve Collar’s departure in June.

Kassab added that the recent agreement between SES and Elon Musk’s Starlink service could lead to an expanded revenue share model over and above the recently announced Cruise liner market.

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, Business, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: FCC, Sami Kassab, satellite, SES, steve collar