01.27.12
Posted in Financials, ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 2:23 pm by timfarrar
Today, the complexities of both the LightSquared and DISH regulatory processes both got even more messy. In the DISH waiver proceeding, AT&T filed an ex parte submission urging the FCC to impose buildout conditions on DISH similar to those imposed on LightSquared (260M POPs within 5 years 9 months), rather than any financial clawback to address the increase in value of the spectrum that a waiver would produce. AT&T also asks for conditions to be imposed on DISH’s 700MHz spectrum in line with the conditions imposed on AT&T’s recent purchase of spectrum from Qualcomm.
This submission is a blatant attempt by AT&T to put a thumb on the scales, as the FCC weighs up the appropriate balance between buildout mandates and clawback of any windfall. The reason for AT&T’s action at this very late stage in the process appears to be that DISH is trying to play off AT&T’s prospective bid against a potential venture with MetroPCS. MetroPCS would certainly be unwilling to commit to a 260M POP buildout, so if the FCC conceded AT&T’s demands, they would be the only game in town and DISH would lose its leverage in price negotiations. We’ll find out soon enough if AT&T’s gambit succeeds, but few would bet against Charlie Ergen’s poker playing skills after the events of the last year.
In the even more complex LightSquared process, the FCC has today issued a Public Notice establishing a Pleading Cycle in respect of LightSquared’s December 2011 Petition for Declaratory Ruling, which sought to establish that GPS receivers were not entitled to interference protection. This Pleading Cycle, with comments due by Feb 27 and replies by March 13, almost certainly pushes back an FCC ruling on the LightSquared testing into the second half of March, because the FCC would want to deal with all of these issues simultaneously. As a result, attention is now likely to be focused around April 1 (appropriately enough All Fools Day), when LightSquared is due to make the next interest payment on its debt and another ~$30M payment to Inmarsat.
The most intriguing issue in the Public Notice is the FCC’s subtle attempt to decouple the resolution of GPS interference from LightSquared’s January 2011 waiver, suggesting that any provision of the “terrestrial portion of service” is subject to the “Interference-Resolution Process” which “to date…has not been completed”:
On January 26, 2011, the International Bureau granted LightSquared Subsidiary LLC (a subsidiary of LightSquared Inc., hereinafter also referred to as LightSquared) a conditional waiver of the ATC “integrated service” rule, thereby establishing certain conditions that LightSquared must meet before it can provide the terrestrial portion of service contemplated by its proposed integrated satellite and terrestrial 4G wireless network. The Conditional Waiver Order prescribed an Interference-Resolution Process by which LightSquared would work with the GPS community to resolve concerns raised about potential interference to GPS receivers and devices that might result from LightSquared’s planned terrestrial operations. As a condition of commencing such commercial operations, the Conditional Waiver Order required that this process first be “completed,” a term defined as the point at which “the Commission, after consultation with NTIA, concludes that the harmful interference concerns have been resolved and sends a letter to LightSquared stating that the process is complete.”
The reason for this is because LightSquared has indicated that, in the event it was blocked from operating, it would withdraw the January 2011 waiver application and claim it had the right to operate a dual-mode (satellite-terrestrial) service under the conditions of the FCC’s 2005 rulings. While that might not be economically viable (or practical), the FCC would presumably then be forced to step in to protect GPS and thereby supposedly “infringe” on LightSquared’s claimed “property rights”. The Petition for Declaratory Ruling is also an attempt to eviscerate the interference protections contained in the 2005 rulings (referred to as CFR 25.255) and thereby make the supposed infringement of LightSquared’s rights all the more obvious.
Thus, from this Public Notice, it does appear that the FCC is at least cognizant of LightSquared’s legal strategy, and is likely (as I predicted) to ultimately rule that the Interference-Resolution Process should be prolonged (and extended to cover GPS receiver/interference standards) and that in the interim LightSquared will be prohibited from commencing any terrestrial operations. LightSquared is apparently contending that this wouldn’t constitute a MAC on its debt covenants, but I suspect that’s an argument some of the debtholders (including Mr. Icahn) will want to test in court.
All this makes for a very complicated set of legal arguments, but one additional piece of information did emerge today that sheds some light on the big picture of why it has been so hard for spectrum holders to monetize their assets, and why the FCC has come in for so much well deserved criticism. DSL Prime is reporting that growth in mobile data usage is running at less than half the level predicted by Cisco and that the FCC staff “demanded their name be taken off” the FCC’s October 2011 demand forecast, because they “didn’t believe the claims in this paper”. However, with so many gullible journalists and investors buying into the idea of a (manufactured) “spectrum crisis” rather than a “spectrum bubble“, perhaps its a bit less surprising that LightSquared has been able to raise over $2.5B of investment in the last 18 months.
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01.20.12
Posted in Financials, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 5:24 pm by timfarrar
This evening Reuters is reporting that Mr. Falcone is examining “the potential for selling [LightSquared's] right to certain spectrum leases” to “raise cash for his financially strapped telecom start-up”. Those leases are presumably the 8MHz of 1.4GHz spectrum that LightSquared leases from TerreStar Corp and the 5MHz of spectrum at 1670-75MHz that is leased from Crown Castle. However, its hard to see how LightSquared could raise any meaningful amount when any buyer would have to take over the underlying lease obligations ($24M per year for the TerreStar spectrum and $13M per year for the Crown Castle spectrum) and there is no clear buildout plan for either band. Indeed LightSquared had not even planned to include the 1.4GHz spectrum in its LTE network, instead entering into an agreement with Airspan Networks in August 2010 under which Airspan would “exclusively market LightSquared’s 1.4 GHz wireless spectrum” to the utilities industry as “a comprehensive solution for Smart Grid and Smart Utility applications” (though with no visible success to date).
Other news emerging today is that I’m told the NTIA plans to release its report on the November 2011 testing next week, presumably accompanied (concurrently or very shortly thereafter) by its recommendations to the FCC. It appears that the NTIA will back the PNT Excom recommendations (most likely including that there should be no further testing at this time and that there should instead be a consultation on GPS receiver standards), and it could hardly do otherwise, given that the test procedures criticized by LightSquared were specified by NTIA in the first place. Remember also that last August Mr. Strickling believed LightSquared was “in Wonderland” in thinking it could move forward after the initial test results came out.
I’m also told that LightSquared is trying very hard to pressure the FCC to overrule the NTIA, and order that the high precision testing should start within the next two weeks. However, that hardly seems plausible given the political firestorm that would be ignited by a public disagreement between the FCC and NTIA. Messrs. Genachowski and Strickling will be in Geneva this weekend for WRC-12 and it sounds like they will be very busy trying to avoid that situation. As a result, we might well see the same outcome as in September, when the release of the NTIA letter was followed very quickly by an FCC response (which in that case was to adopt the NTIA recommendation). It definitely looks like next week will be a very busy one, so follow me on Twitter @TMFAssociates for all the latest information.
UPDATE (1/22): It appears that the NTIA recommendations letter will have to wait for Mr. Strickling to return from Geneva, so we may not see it until the week of Jan 30. I also now expect the FCC to order a (pretty lengthy) GPS receiver standards rulemaking, which will allow for further testing and debate on when the lower band spectrum might be useable for terrestrial services (think 2020 or thereabouts, though we won’t have any definitive transition timeline until 2013 or even 2014) and conveniently put off any decision until after the November election. Of course, because LightSquared will be unable to operate its terrestrial network in the meantime (almost certainly a MAC for its loan covenants), that will likely set off a major battle amongst the debtholders about what to do next, with Mr. Icahn likely to try and force LightSquared into bankruptcy in the near future, while some other debtholders might be more supportive of Mr. Falcone if they still believe he can see this process through.
Assuming that the FCC did agree with the NTIA and stated that it was prohibiting LightSquared from commencing terrestrial operations for the foreseeable future, the most interesting question will be the grounds for its legal authority in doing so. LightSquared has indicated that it would withdraw the waiver request in these circumstances, and that it believes this would render the condition (requiring GPS interference concerns to be resolved) imposed in the January 2011 order null and void. In that case, the FCC would probably have to fall back on the authority that the GPS industry (plus others such as CTIA) have asserted all along (and LightSquared has challenged, most recently in its Dec 2011 Petition for Declaratory Ruling), that CFR 25.255 (“If harmful interference is caused to other services by ancillary MSS ATC operations, either from ATC base stations or mobile terminals, the MSS ATC operator must resolve any such interference”) provides absolute protection against LightSquared being permitted to cause harmful interference. In that case we could expect to see LightSquared launch legal action very quickly, in line with the position adopted in its December petition.
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11.29.11
Posted in Aeronautical, Broadband, Globalstar, Handheld, Inmarsat, Iridium, LDR, Maritime, Operators, Orbcomm, Services, TerreStar, VSAT at 12:20 pm by timfarrar
As I remarked in an interview for the Satellite 2012 downlink newsletter yesterday, 2011 has seen a dramatic deceleration in MSS revenue growth, with wholesale service revenues now expected to grow by less than 3% in 2011, compared to the 7%-8% growth seen in each of 2008, 2009 and 2010. Yesterday we also released our latest industry report which gives ten year forecasts for MSS industry growth. In the L-band market (including Inmarsat L-band, LightSquared, Thuraya, Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm) we project cumulative revenue growth from 2010 to 2020 of only 4% p.a. and even when Global Xpress is added to Inmarsat’s revenues in the latter part of the decade, the overall cumulative growth rate is only increased to around 6% p.a.
This represents a striking contrast with widely quoted forecasts from Euroconsult and NSR, that the MSS market (excluding GX) will grow at 7% p.a. over the decade (Euroconsult) or 10% p.a. from 2010-15 (NSR). These optimistic forecasts seem to have achieved wide currency with analysts and bankers, who have argued (for example at the Satcon conference in October) that the MSS industry is more attractive than the FSS industry because of its much faster growth profile. One example that stands out is a JP Morgan analyst report on Inmarsat, published last Thursday, which gives an upbeat assessment of Inmarsat’s prospects and projects a target price of 800p per share (roughly double the current level). Not only does JPM expect LightSquared’s spectrum lease payments to be continued indefinitely after they file for bankruptcy (which is ludicrously unrealistic once you understand that LightSquared’s political backing has evaporated and even the FCC has basically given up on them, but may reflect the fact that JPM co-led (with UBS) the sale of LightSquared’s first lien debt earlier this year), but they expect Inmarsat’s core L-band business to resume growth at 2.5% p.a. from 2012 and Global Xpress to achieve Inmarsat’s target of $500M in annual revenues after 5 years.
Where do we differ with Euroconsult and NSR? It appears the primary source of the discrepancy is in our expectations for the maritime and aeronautical L-band markets. According to the JPM report, NSR is projecting 11% p.a. and 13% p.a. growth respectively for the maritime and aeronautical segments between 2010 and 2015. We are told that Euroconsult also takes a relatively optimistic view of the outlook for the maritime and aeronautical L-band markets. However, our expectations are that wholesale maritime and aeronautical L-band service revenues will actually decline between 2010 and 2020, as customers move to Global Xpress and other VSAT solutions. As a result, future L-band growth will have to come from land-based services, particularly low speed data and (to a much lesser extent) handheld satellite phones. That’s relatively good news for Iridium and Globalstar (as well as Orbcomm, if they can continue to gain momentum), but its still unclear whether ~8% p.a. growth in land MSS revenues will be sufficient for all of these companies to thrive in the face of what will inevitably be an ever-increasing focus by Inmarsat on this part of the MSS market.
If you are interested in our latest report, which also includes a detailed analysis of Inmarsat’s maritime market outlook and forecasts for in-flight passenger communications services, as well as discussion of the current prospects for terrestrial use of MSS spectrum, please contact us for more details about our MSS information service.
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11.04.11
Posted in Financials, ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 1:04 pm by timfarrar
In addition to Sprint’s announcement today that it plans to offer new debt in a private transaction, Sprint has more quietly been rounding up additional money from both LightSquared and DISH. In Sprint’s most recent 10-Q, filed yesterday, the company notes that “In September, the [spectrum hosting] arrangement was amended to change the September 30, 2011 contingency date for LightSquared’s performance to December 16, 2011. The December 31, 2011 contingency date remained unchanged. This amendment also provided for an additional prepayment of $20 million, which was received in October 2011.” Today, Sprint has told the FCC that “DISH and Sprint have today reached an agreement to settle all of these [reimbursement] disputes among Sprint, DISH, and their subsidiaries and affiliates in a mutually satisfactory manner” and will presumably therefore be paid a significant proportion of its $220M claim against DBSD and TerreStar ($110M per company) for BAS relocation expenses.
UPDATE (11/7): DISH has now revealed that it will pay Sprint a total of $114M, though it is not yet clear if Sprint will retain any additional claims in the bankruptcy cases of DBSD and/or TerreStar Networks.
However, the two disclosures appear to have rather different consequences for LightSquared and DISH. In the case of LightSquared, this represents another $20M of expenditure over and above the amount assumed in my analysis earlier this week. More importantly, Sprint has set a precedent under which it will now presumably expect to be paid even more money when LightSquared is unable to meet the revised deadline of December 16 and the second deadline of December 31 (and of course it is certain that the FCC will not be able to rule by then, because LightSquared’s proposed filter for precision GPS equipment is not being tested by the government this month, as LightSquared has now admitted).
I also now suspect that Boeing’s vendor financing loan may simply have been extended (perhaps by 12 months?), from its original December 2010 repayment deadline, and a new deadline is likely to occur relatively soon, because Boeing will need some certainty about whether the SkyTerra-2 satellite will be available for its MEXSAT project. If Boeing does insist on repayment (of what would now be $130M+) within the next few months, then (faced with the unpalatable alternative that LightSquared forfeits the ground spare satellite and potentially jeopardizes its ATC license) LightSquared could well run out of money before its next first lien interest payment in April. Specifically, my estimate on Monday was that LightSquared would have about $170M in cash at the end of Q1 2012, which would not be sufficient to cover a payment of $130M+ to Boeing, plus the $20M already paid to Sprint and the additional payments that are now likely in respect of the December deadlines. Even without making any repayment to Boeing, if LightSquared needs to pay Sprint an extra $20M for each additional 3 month deadline extension, then it would have barely enough money to make the interest payment due on April 1, 2012.
In the case of DISH, it appears that the news of a Sprint settlement is more positive, as it removes one of the main roadblocks to the FCC approving a transfer of control of the DBSD and TerreStar assets to DISH. However, DISH’s requested ATC waiver has come under more pressure, with AT&T now joining the CTIA in pressing for the waiver issue to be considered in a full rulemaking proceeding. Interestingly, both AT&T and the CTIA raise the question of a windfall, with the CTIA explicitly noting (footnote 21) that:
While DISH argues that it took into account the possibility of future flexibility for the spectrum during the bankruptcy process, certainly other parties were not factoring that into the process. Moreover, 40 MHz of nationwide, terrestrial broadband spectrum would not be valued at $2.8 billion. When looking at past valuations for such spectrum assets, a valuation of 3 to 4 times this would be more realistic if terrestrial rights were guaranteed.
Of course, that statement once again highlights the issue of LightSquared’s own $10B windfall problem which the GPS industry are now making so much of, and makes it harder for the FCC to grant DISH a waiver without some way to recover value for the Treasury. As a result, it is plausible that (with the transfer of control and ATC waiver being processed by the FCC in separate dockets) a ruling on the transfer of control could come ahead of any waiver decision.
UPDATE (11/14): A November 9 ex parte filing from DISH appears to confirm that the FCC is concerned about the “windfall” issue and might separate the transfer of control ruling from the waiver requests.
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09.02.11
Posted in Financials, Handheld, Iridium, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Services, Spectrum, TerreStar at 9:20 am by timfarrar
Next week on September 7, Iridium is announcing “a new force in personal communications that aims to address the growing expectation of connectivity everywhere, all the time” which is “more than the launch of a single product”. There have been a couple of rumors about what this might be, firstly a commercial version of the Netted Iridium PTT service that has been such a success with the DoD, in conjunction with the new 9575 phone (which has a convenience key that could support such functionality) or secondly a Bluetooth-enabled device (similar to inReach or SPOT Connect) that is voice and data capable and can connect to standard cellular phones (a concept that has been put forward on multiple occasions by various MSS operators, including ICO Global back in 2001 and is already possible on Inmarsat BGAN terminals). Of course there may be some third unknown possibility, but of these two options it appears that the first is a more differentiated concept and may be nearer to realization at this point in time.
This week Inside GNSS reported some interesting insights into the LightSquared/ GPS interference debate, including a meeting in Washington DC last Friday August 26, “brokered by NTIA” which “suggested that a new test period — of 90 days or more may be needed”. The article also mentioned “Guidance from the White House” which mandates that officials “cannot attack LightSquared” because “President Obama apparently sees LightSquared’s plan as a centerpiece of a wireless broadband initiative that he hopes to make part of his re-election campaign”. More information may emerge at the rescheduled September 8 hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, which could be especially controversial as “NTIA reportedly is refusing to release information about the effect of GPS denial of service submitted by federal agencies” (similar to the devastating FAA assessment) to the Committee chairman.
Finally, a little more clarity emerged on how the claims of TerreStar’s various creditors will be treated, after the bankruptcy judge ruled on August 19 that the first lien debtholders have a valid lien on the proceeds of TerreStar Networks’s spectrum licenses. As a result, it now appears that in the TSN bankruptcy, there may be as little as $30M-$40M of cash left for the unsecured creditors ($1111M left of distributable value after paying the DIP and PMCA loans vs secured claims of $1077M as of August 31), who have total claims of $460M (including $179M for the 6.5% Exchangeable Notes and $104M for Sprint), although of course some of these claims (including an intercompany loan of $57M from TerreStar Corporation) are being challenged and TSN has asserted quite sizeable claims in the TSC bankruptcy (which could increase the total recovery, albeit in New TSC Notes, by tens of millions of dollars). However, this certainly means that Harbinger is taking yet another hit on its TSN investments, when it was buying Exchangeable Notes at as much as 82 cents on the dollar last November and the return to unsecured creditors is estimated to be only 10 to 15 cents on the dollar.
In the TSC bankruptcy, the Plan of Reorganization that has been filed contemplates that unsecured creditors (including potentially Elektrobit and TSN) with total claims estimated at $136M will receive “New TSC Notes” with “face amount equivalent to estimated Allowed Claims” secured by the estimated $177M value of the 1.4GHz spectrum. The Preferred Stock holders ($90M of Series A held by Highland and $318.5M of Series B, the majority of which is held by Soros and Harbinger) will fund an exit facility of $6.5M and receive all of the new equity in TSC, while the 1.4GHz spectrum lease (with Harbinger/ LightSquared) will remain in place providing $2M per month of revenue for TSC and more than covering the estimated $12M annual interest expense on the New TSC Notes.
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08.31.11
Posted in Financials, ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 11:26 am by timfarrar
It seems that Sprint is not having much luck with timing when it comes to the announcement of its 4G strategy. Back in March it was apparently poised to announce a deal with LightSquared at CTIA, which was derailed by the AT&T/T-Mobile merger announcement. Now Sprint has just sent out invitations to its October 7 strategy update, only for the DoJ to announce it is filing suit to block the merger.
As Sprint attempts to write the “fourth chapter” in its 4G strategy for this October event, it appears the upheaval caused by this unexpected DoJ announcement could very well complicate its plans. It has been reported that Sprint has engaged in discussions with several cable companies, but most coverage had focused on whether this would lead to a takeover bid for Clearwire. However, there isn’t much need for a resolution of the Clearwire situation ahead of October 7 – what Sprint really requires is a solution for its wide area LTE coverage rollout rather than the urban capacity enhancement that Clearwire intends to provide. With little probability that it can use LightSquared’s spectrum in the immediate future, and only a limited quantity of its own PCS spectrum available for LTE, I think its more likely that the next chapter of Sprint’s strategy would have involved the cable operators exchanging their SpectrumCo AWS holdings (a near national 20MHz block acquired for only $0.43/MHzPOP in the 2006 auction) for an equity stake in Sprint itself.
Now the DoJ’s actions this morning have introduced considerable uncertainty about whether this would be the best way forward for Sprint, both because a Sprint/T-Mobile merger could ultimately be back on the table, and because the cable companies could potentially sell their AWS holdings to T-Mobile, which was previously regarded as the obvious purchaser for these assets. Thus I think on balance its now less likely that Sprint will have a major new agreement with the cable companies to announce in October.
There could also be repercussions for DISH’s filing with the FCC for a waiver of the ATC restrictions in the 2GHz band. There are certainly many positives, in that either T-Mobile or AT&T could once more become a viable partner for DISH, but it also seems likely that the FCC may be unwilling to decide how it will handle the DISH application (and more particularly what conditions it will agree to) until the ultimate disposition of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger is decided. That’s because there will be less need to insist on DISH becoming a standalone competitor (and perhaps even to provide wholesale access commitments) if there are still going to be four national wireless operators in the market, though of course the FCC will still want to ensure that DISH does not simply flip the spectrum to one of those “big guys”, as some people apparently think it will do.
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08.22.11
Posted in Financials, ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 2:08 pm by timfarrar
Today, DISH has filed its transfer application for TerreStar’s 2GHz spectrum licenses with the FCC, stating that it plans to combine the spectrum with that of DBSD, so that it can use the full 40MHz to launch a “hybrid satellite and terrestrial mobile and fixed broadband network…to provide American consumers with greater choice for mobile broadband services”. DISH plans to deploy its network “based on the LTE Advanced standard” for which “commercial devices are expected to be generally available by 2014″, and seeks permission “to provide dual-mode terminals to customers who want them, and single-mode terrestrial terminals to customers who do not want the satellite function” noting that “relief from the integration requirement is an important component of DISH’s plan”. DISH also seeks a waiver of the ATC gating requirement to acquire a backup satellite.
In exchange, DISH states that it “is prepared to work with the Commission to develop a reasonable, attainable buildout schedule keyed to commercial availability of the LTE Advanced standard” and make “certain substantial terrestrial network deployment commitments intended to increase wireless broadband competition, including in rural areas”. However, though DISH has previously indicated that it will seek partners for its mobile broadband play, it does not commit to make network available on a wholesale basis to third parties.
As I’ve pointed out previously, DISH is now in a perfect position to replace LightSquared as the FCC’s favored option for providing additional wireless competition. Indeed DISH highlights specifically in the TerreStar application that “use of the [2GHz] band also does not give rise to the GPS interference issues that have hampered the use of the L-band” which is one of the factors meaning that the “promise of MSS/ATC has yet to be fully realized”. DISH also notes pointedly that it is “a well-financed, capable, and recognized innovator in communications technology [with] unique experience in developing an innovative and competitive retail operation and growing it from zero to approximately 14 million subscribers”.
Thus this application now sets the scene for a negotiation with the Commission over the terms of the promised buildout, including the specific coverage commitments and perhaps even some later promise (depending on the views of DISH’s key partners) to enter into wholesale deals with smaller players. With the cable companies apparently aligning themselves with Sprint, it looks very much like DISH will now partner with MetroPCS and perhaps even DirecTV and/or Leap as well.
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08.18.11
Posted in Financials, Globalstar, Inmarsat, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 8:49 pm by timfarrar
In my last post I estimated that to in order to relocate and preserve precision GPS service for farmers and surveyors there might need to be a “delay of several years” before LightSquared was able to bring its lower 2x10MHz of spectrum into use in a terrestrial network. Indeed, according to one GPS industry commentator, a transition period of 12 years might be more appropriate to “allow a smooth transition with a manageable financial impact to the high-precision GPS user community.”
However, because of LightSquared’s prior assurances that it wanted to cooperate with the GPS industry to preserve existing services, no-one seems to have noticed that in fact the company does have a potential “nuclear option”, namely that because these services are provided on a commercial basis to Starfire and OmniSTAR, LightSquared and Inmarsat could simply decide to cease supporting these services in accordance with their capacity lease contracts. Given that LightSquared is now blaming the GPS industry for the interference problems and accusing GPS manufacturers of being unwilling to cooperate with its attempts to find a solution, it seems increasingly plausible that LightSquared could now say that it simply can’t continue to support these services unless the FCC mandates a rapid transition of precision GPS users to new equipment equipped with filters.
LightSquared (which provides capacity to OmniSTAR, now owned by Trimble) has previously indicated that it only plans to support its legacy services in “emulation mode” for a limited period of time, and it appears likely that the contract with OmniSTAR could therefore potentially be terminated at relatively short notice. While Inmarsat’s contract with Starfire may not operate under quite such a short time horizons, many of Inmarsat’s leases are renewable on an annual basis and so could possibly be terminated if desired. In reaching such a decision, Inmarsat would have to decide whether it prefers the ~$1M or so it receives each year from Starfire to the $115M it is being paid each year by LightSquared (indeed it is conceivable that this issue may have been addressed in the deal under which Inmarsat was paid an additional $40M by LightSquared earlier this year).
Some might argue that the FCC would surely step in to prevent such damage to precision GPS services. However, in March 2010 when it granted LightSquared the requested modifications to its ATC license, the FCC explicitly stated that it would refrain “from interfering unnecessarily with licensees’ business negotiations” even though “this may present challenges to earth station operators using the satellites involved, and may require modification of operations, deployment of new equipment, or other adjustments” because “it would not serve the public interest for the Commission to assume the role of an arbiter of disputes between a satellite operator and its customers.” Nevertheless, the FCC did leave itself one potential escape route, stating that it would not step into such disputes “in the absence of a prior determination that the satellite operator provides essential service and is unconstrained by actual or potential competition from providers of substitutable services.”
Of course, if the FCC did step in and force LightSquared to continue providing precision GPS services, then that might provide grounds for LightSquared to sue for compensation, especially if that was determined to be the main roadblock to offering commercial service in its lower L-band spectrum. As I’ve noted before, ending up in court certainly seems to be an increasingly plausible outcome to what the Economist describes as this “sorry tale of greed, haste and incompetence.”
As an aside, LightSquared does not seem to be the only MSS operator whose ATC services face interference challenges. A recent comment on one of my older blog posts highlighted that Open Range has been getting into difficulties with its use of Globalstar’s S-band spectrum in Indiana. Additionally, if LightSquared’s use of ATC handsets at 1627-1637MHz is a major concern for GPS users in the 1559-1610MHz band, then one would have to expect even greater concern about any future ATC deployment within Globalstar’s L-band spectrum at 1610-1617.775MHz (note that Open Range only uses Globalstar’s S-band spectrum in a TDD architecture). Similarly, there are now a number of comments in the 2GHz proceeding about the potential interference challenges at the bottom end of the TerreStar uplink spectrum (2000MHz).
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08.09.11
Posted in Financials, ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 3:07 pm by timfarrar
It seems from today’s unexpected press conference that the FCC Chairman has finally realized that there is no way to avoid the fact that the GPS interference issues are a showstopper, and he is now preparing the ground to basically throw LightSquared under the bus. In particular the FCC is now characterizing the January waiver as a “stop work” order, stating that there is “no timetable” for the review (despite LightSquared’s recent insistence that it was “confident that the FCC will green-light its plans in mid-September”) and suggesting that there will now be more testing of the lower band plan, while use of the upper band will not be “happening anytime soon.”
Judging from these comments, my best guess is that there will now be six more months of testing on the lower band proposal (lasting into the spring or early summer of 2012, depending on how long it takes to issue the ruling), and a final decision could plausibly be deferred until after next year’s Presidential election (in order to avoid a political battle with the farming lobby). In addition, I suspect that even if LightSquared (assuming it is still around) received approval at that time, there could still be a delay of several years for precision users such as farmers and surveyors to modify their equipment before the lower band was brought into use.
Of course the reason that LightSquared had insisted on a mid-September approval is that it needs to raise additional funding before it can move forward with the Sprint deal, and as noted in Sprint’s 10-Q, there are “contingencies related to possible interference issues” in the network hosting agreement which give Sprint the right “to terminate the arrangement if certain conditions are not met either by September 30, 2011 or December 31, 2011.” However, this would apparently involve giving back LightSquared’s prepayments, so it seems more likely that the agreement would be “terminated for LightSquared’s material breach, non-payment or insolvency” in which case “Sprint maintains a second lien on certain of LightSquared’s spectrum related assets” (though that may be worthless) and presumably can also keep any payments made by LightSquared. Unfortunately, as stated today, although the FCC “would be sensitive to the financial situation of LightSquared’s owner, Harbinger Capital … that would not affect how it came to its decision on how to proceed” and FCC officials “insist they never told LightSquared the review would be completed by [mid-September].”
On the other hand, this morning, DISH stated that it plans “to make a mobile broadband play with its recently acquired S-Band satellite spectrum” and it intends to play a “significant role” in the wireless industry. When asked if DISH would reveal its strategy as soon as the Sprint announcement on October 7, DISH cautioned that they “wouldn’t expect anything in the near term.” Thus it seems that with LightSquared now left hanging, and the stock prices of Sprint, MetroPCS and Leap all suffering badly after their Q2 results, DISH is in an increasingly strong position, and may want to take more time to obtain the best possible terms for the partnerships needed for its wireless strategy. However, if that is the case, it is harder to see what might be a plausible “fourth chapter” for Sprint’s wireless strategy in early October, and it is always possible that DISH’s comment could be intended to put pressure on Sprint to offer them a better deal.
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07.13.11
Posted in ICO/DBSD, LightSquared, Operators, Regulatory, Spectrum, TerreStar at 3:49 pm by timfarrar
As LightSquared continues to be engulfed by a tidal wave of criticism from the GPS industry, it now appears that this storm is setting up perfectly for DISH Network to solve the FCC’s problem: how to ensure that a competitive wholesale mobile broadband network can be deployed when it seems nearly impossible for LightSquared to use its L-band spectrum. While some think that DISH could lease its 2GHz spectrum holdings to LightSquared, to me it seems far more likely that DISH has plans for its own national 4G LTE wireless network, in partnership with “somebody who is more of an expert in that business than we are“.
Indeed in the application to transfer DBSD’s spectrum licenses to DISH, filed back in April, the company stated that “we expect the transaction to result in the provision of mobile broadband services” and in particular:
DISH plans to deploy a hybrid satellite/terrestrial system dedicated to the provision of mobile broadband services. If successful, consumers will be able to use their mobile terminals for high-speed Internet access as well as a myriad of Internet Protocol-based, over-the-top applications, including mobile video. DISH expects that the consumer equipment will include broadband-capable tablet computers, among other devices. DISH anticipates offering services both on a stand-alone basis and in a consumer-friendly bundle with its multichannel video services.
If DISH does manage to line up the partners to deploy such a network (potentially including MetroPCS, whose interest in the 2GHz band is well known), then that might well leave LightSquared to sink without a trace, as it would make it much easier for the FCC to defer to demands from the NTIA for six months of additional testing on LightSquared’s new spectrum plan. Of course, a six month delay would put the decision timeframe into the midst of a presidential election year, when it is all but inconceivable that either the White House or Congress would go against the wishes of millions of farmers, engineers, aviators and boaters.
In contrast, an alternative network proposed by DISH would have a ready made support base, not only from those parties demanding increased wireless broadband competition, but also from all those who have demanded that LightSquared’s network be moved outside the L-band. It seems both sides would therefore be eager to support the FCC granting DISH a waiver similar to LightSquared, permitting terrestrial-only devices, if DISH was to commit to aggressive buildout milestones and to providing wholesale access to its network capacity as Harbinger did back in March 2010.
Today there have been renewed rumors that Sprint will announce a deal with LightSquared during its Q2 results call on July 28, although another source has suggested to me that Sprint does not intend to set out its Network Vision plans at that time. Thus I’m left wondering whether this is an attempt to derail DISH’s plans, which certainly seem to be in pretty high gear, judging by the number of visits DISH has made to the FCC in recent weeks to discuss the 2GHz MSS spectrum band.
Maybe we are therefore moving towards the last few minutes of this Seinfeld episode. However, as Charlie Ergen knows only too well, in Seinfeld there are very few happy endings, except when they come at someone else’s expense.
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