The Coming Battle Of The Satellite Stars… EchoStar + Intelsat…

An application for the authority to construct, launch and operate a geostationary C-band satellite has been filed with the Federal Communications Commission by EchoStar Corporation using the orbital slot 84.9° W, only recently made available for reassignment. A satellite manufacturer has yet to be selected by EchoStar, but the current name for this satellite is ECHOSTAR-85W.

FSS services, naturally, have been approved to include broadcast/cable programming transport to head ends, stations, and uplink facilities as well as delivery of C-band TV services directly to the consumer or via a satellite master antenna system. With this additional C-band capacity, EchoStar will be able to add more services to CONUS, as well as to some Canadian and Mexican-based, customers. Operating at 85° W is SES Americom‘s AMC-16, AMC-9 (83° W) and AMC-3 (87° W). And at 85.083° W is XM Radio‘s XM-3 satellite, with Star One‘s BRASILSAT-B3 operating at 84° W. Also planned for insertion at 85° W is a Ka-band network operated from the United Kingdom and a C/Ku-band network operated out of Luxembourg, but the FCC has uncovered no evidence these nets are under, or being, constructed as of the commission’s approval.

Ohhhhhh, wait just a second here… look at this! Another FCC filing request, this one by PanAmSat Licensee Corporation, wholly owned by Intelsat Corporation. Hmmm, this one is requesting permission to relocate Galaxy-11 to 84.9° W during Q1 of 2011, and to operate the satellite’s C-band from that slot … a blocking move, territorial dispute, or… just good ol’ friendly competition! Galaxy-11 currently operates at 91.0° W and, if moved, Galaxy-17 would be relocated to occupy that slot. PanAmSat says five years would be the normal estimated time necessary to build, launch, and operate at satellite to this location — moving an already existing satellite to the slot saves a couple of years with minimized service gaps. The operational lifetime of Galaxy-11 is estimated to conclude sometime in around 2015 and the satellite will provide CONUS coverage. This is certainly one popular orbit slot!