cybrsurfer said:
DirecTV has 4 satellites hovering at the 101 degree orbital slot right now. Next year, DirecTV will have 2 each satellites for slots 99.2 and 102.9 (
[email protected] and
[email protected]). Most people don't realize this, but there is no restriction by the FCC on how many can be positioned at each orbital location.
Dish can certainly do the same.
E* would need FCC permission for anything they do in the sky to reach American consumers ... more on that in a moment:
cybrsurfer said:
You can have 4 satellites to an orbital location because of the 4 bands... Ka High,Lo, Ku Hi,lo... So the industry knows what the capacity is. Dish just has to take advantage of the capacity that is available.
I understand that you cant expect to have more than 4 to one orbital slot, otherwise it will be a problem.
I'm simply speaking the facts.
There is no fixed limit of 4 satellites per slot ... and 4 satellites because there are four bands is just, well, wrong.
The important part about satellites sharing an orbital location is that they don't interfere with each other. Take the DBS band, for example. At 61.5° E* has two satellites. The transmissions of one satellite OVERLAP the other satellite on different channels (E12 does odd transponders, E3 does overlapping even transponders). Echostar holds the license to 22 transponders at 61.5° (and has borrowed 6 licenses from SkyAngel) ... that is what limits what they can do there (other than satellite failures).
Spin over to 110° ... two more E* satellites there, E8 and E10 (plus DirecTV has a satellite there). Once again, all in the DBS band. Both are spotbeam satellites (although E8's spots are silent). E* has devised a plan on how to use six uplink centers (with three more unused at the moment) to feed input transponders on different receive antennas and send those feeds down to spots all over the US. DirecTV does the same trick at 101° and 119°. Multiple uplinks are needed to have multiple downlink spots.
All this (so far) in the same 500MHz DBS spectrum.
Now add FSS and KA. Do you need separate satellites for that as you suggested? No. E9 at 121° is a good example of an FSS/Ka bird on one satellite --- and that same satellite also serves C band signals! Three bands from one satellite.
What the FCC is looking at most for granting permission is bandwidth ... for DBS they have 500MHz divided into 32 transponders, with these transponders licensed to satellite carriers. What they do with those transponders (whether they are ConUS or spots) is monitored by the FCC (and internationally by the ITU) but as long as they are not interfering with other licensees it's up to the carrier.
Currently E* has more DBS bandwidth than any other carrier. At the core locations (101°-119°) D* has 46 channels and E* has 50. Plus E* has 22 at 61.5° (plus 2 borrowed from the FCC and 6 borrowed from SkyAngel) and 32 at 148°. Then we get into foreign locations. D* has partial use of a Canadian slot 72.5° ... E* has negotiated partial use of Canadian slot at 129°. The FCC has allowed the two companies to serve American customers from these slots. (More DBS transponders.)
Then we add in FSS ... E* has nearly abandoned 105° but could still put content there. E* still operates at 121° and has started operations at 118.75°. Three locations that provide another 500Hz of bandwidth each. D* went the Ka route. E* also has other Ku licenses pending.
Plenty of bandwidth up there ... E* is just approaching it from the higher spectrum.