BY ELECTRONIC FILING

April 4, 2022

Marlene Dortch

Secretary

Federal Communications Commission

45 L Street, NE

Washington, DC 20554

Re: Expanding Flexible Use of the 12.2-12.7 GHz Band, WT Docket No. 20-443, GN

Docket No. 17-183

Dear Ms. Dortch:

DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”) responds to an ex parte filing reporting a

presentation against opening the 12.2-12.7 GHz band (“12 GHz band”) for 5G. That

presentation, filed in outline form in the above-captioned proceedings, was made to the

Commission by Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, DIRECTV, LLC, Intelsat License LLC,

Kepler Communications Inc., WorldVu Satellites Limited (“OneWeb”), and SES S.A. (the

“Anti-5G group”).

This is a somewhat surprising group of companies. One of them (SpaceX) uses the

12 GHz spectrum to an uncertain extent but has no proven need for it in light of the vast other

spectrum to which non-geostationary orbit (“NGSO”) satellite systems have access. In fact, the

12 GHz band represents only 3% of SpaceX’s already licensed spectrum of 15,550 MHz (see

attached exhibit).

Two others (OneWeb and Kepler) want to use the spectrum, even though,

again, they have no demonstrable need for it. One other, SES, does have an operational

geostationary satellite using the 12 GHz band. But that satellite’s use of 12 GHz is provided

exclusively to DISH. DISH is therefore in an authoritative position to assess the risk to that

satellite from 5G services in the band.

Finally, two other companies (DIRECTV and Intelsat) do not use the 12 GHz band

extensively. Indeed, if either company were interested in intensive use of the 12 GHz band, it

Letter from Jameson Dempsey, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., to Marlene Dortch,

FCC, WT Docket No. 20-443 and GN Docket No. 17-183 (Mar. 1, 2022).

Letter from Jeffrey Blum, DISH, to Marlene Dortch, FCC, File No. SAT-MOD-20200417-

00037, at 7 (July 14, 2020). In addition, SpaceX is currently requesting authority for yet another

20,000 megahertz of spectrum in the E-band. See SpaceX Application, File No. SAT-LOA-

20200526-00055 (May 26, 2020).

Pantelis Michalopoulos

202 429 6494

[email protected]m

1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036-1795

202 429 3000 main

www.steptoe.com

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

Page 2

would be more concerned with the prospect of interference from SpaceX’s own constellation of

some 34,000 proposed satellites. As DISH has shown,

SpaceX’s proposed second-generation

system will sharply exceed the equivalent power flux density (“EPFD”) limits intended to protect

Direct Broadcast Satellite (“DBS”) services, and DIRECTV (through AT&T) has correctly

expressed serious concerns about the interference potential posed even by SpaceX’s

comparatively more modest first-generation system.

The Anti-5G group still tries to discredit the MVDDS 5G Coalition’s 2016 studies

showing that higher-power terrestrial services can share the band with DBS services.

With

some inconsistency, the group also tries to invest with an aura of infallibility studies submitted in

that same year about the difficulties of sharing between higher-power terrestrial and NGSO

services. But the Anti-5G group has it backwards for a simple reason: time, and the technical

advances it brings, helps with sharing. For that reason, the 2016 terrestrial/DBS studies have

withstood the test of time—in fact, sharing between higher-power terrestrial services is even

easier now than what those studies had concluded. For that reason, too, the 2016

terrestrial/NGSO studies have been overtaken by events, including the advances of beamforming

and horizon nulling, as well as, crucially, the evolution of NGSO systems into a more

geostationary-like mode of operation.

NGSO Operations Pose the Real Proven Interference Risk to DBS

The picture of 12 GHz sharing between NGSO services and DBS services is bleak.

NGSO/DBS services. DISH has submitted uncontested evidence that SpaceX’s first-

generation NGSO system will exceed the EPFD limits imposed by the Commission for the

protection of DBS services in the 12 GHz band.

This is shown by inputting real-world U.S.

See Reply of DISH Network Corporation to Opposition and Response to Comments of Space

Exploration Holdings, LLC, SAT-LOA-20200526-00055 and SAT-AMD-20210818-00105

(Mar. 8, 2022) (“DISH Gen2 Reply”).

Reply of AT&T Services, Inc., File No. SAT-MOD-20200417-00037 at 2-3 (Aug. 7, 2020)

(“AT&T Third Modification Reply”).

The MVDDS 5G Coalition submitted two studies: Comments of MVDDS 5G Coalition, RM-

11768, Attachment 1 (June 8, 2016) (attaching MVDDS 12.2-12.7 GHz Co-Primary Service

Coexistence (June 8, 2016)); Reply Comments of the MVDDS 5G Coalition, RM-11768,

Appendix A (June 23, 2016) (attaching MVDDS 12.2-12.7 GHz Co-Primary Service

Coexistence II (June 23, 2016)) (collectively, “2016 Coalition Studies”).

See Letter from Jeffrey Blum, DISH, to Marlene Dortch, FCC, File No. SAT-MOD20200417-

00037; WT Docket No. 20-443 (Feb. 15, 2021) (attaching EPFD Assessment of SpaceX into

DISH Ku-Band GSO Networks); Letter from Jeffrey Blum, DISH, to Marlene Dortch, FCC, File

No. SAT-MOD20200417-00037; WT Docket No. 20-443 (Mar. 25, 2021) (attaching EPFD

Assessment of SpaceX into DISH Ku-band GSO Networks Located in the United States); Letter

from Jeffrey Blum, DISH, to Marlene Dortch, FCC, File No. SAT-MOD20200417-00037 (Apr.

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

Page 3

DBS dish locations in the ITU-approved software (instead of the hypothetical “worst-case

geometries,” for example off the coast of Greenland, posited by that software). And the EPFD

limits are exceeded by even greater amounts when one considers the effect of all NGSO satellites

above the horizon for a particular DBS dish.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is considering the question of

whether the Commission should consider these showings in the context of SpaceX’s third-

modification, or whether it should defer to an ITU process that the ITU itself recognizes may not

work.

But, SpaceX’s proposed Gen2 system, of almost 30,000 satellites, does not even

implicate that question. DISH has shown that SpaceX will exceed the EPFD limits even by

using the ITU-approved software without making any adjustments to it.

Figures 16(b) and (c)

from the report accompanying DISH’s reply in the Gen2 application proceeding illustrate this

vividly. For the 45 cm and 60 cm DBS dishes, the EPFD level of the SpaceX proposed

constellation (the blue line) exceeds the EPFD limit (the red line) by significant amounts and

over a significant time variability range.

23, 2021) (attaching EPFD Assessment of SpaceX With Multiple Frequency Reuse Into DISH

Ku-Band GSO Receivers Located in the United States).

See Viasat, Inc. v. FCC, Case No. 21-1123 (D.C. Cir.).

Marc Dupuis, Second Technical Study on SpaceX Second-Generation System, at 25-27 (March

8, 2022) (attached as Exhibit 1 to DISH Gen2 Reply) (“Dupuis Gen2 Reply Report”).

Id. at 21, Figures 16(b), 16(c).

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

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The results are even worse with adjustments such as an Nco greater than 1 and real-world DBS

dish locations.

All four of DISH’s expert reports must be fully considered in the context of this

proceeding, as the Commission needs to determine what rule changes advance the public

interest. And, since SpaceX’s 12 GHz authorization is entirely subject to this proceeding’s

outcome, the Commission needs to account for the significant interference SpaceX will cause to

existing DBS operations as it considers updating the 12 GHz rules to permit two-way higher

power terrestrial use. In fact, the Commission repeatedly has told SpaceX that its 12 GHz

authorization is “subject to any modification necessary to bring it into conformance with future

actions in Commission rulemakings, including but not limited to the 12 GHz proceeding, which

is expressly referenced in the ordering clauses below.”

The Commission went so far as to warn

SpaceX that its use of 12 GHz is at SpaceX’s “own risk”

and that “any investments made

toward operations” in 12 GHz “assume the risk that operations may be subject to additional

conditions or requirements as a result of any future Commission actions.”

It is not only DISH that is concerned about SpaceX’s interference into DBS. Before the

DIRECTV spinoff, AT&T, too, understood the potential threat into satellite television in the

Id. at 25-28, 28-31.

Space Exploration Holdings, LLC Request for Modification of the Authorization for the

SpaceX NGSO Satellite System, Order, Authorization, and Order on Reconsideration, 36 FCC

Rcd. 7995, 8025 ¶ 50 (2021).

Id.

Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, Application for Approval for Orbital Deployment and

Operating Authority for the SpaceX NGSO Satellite System, Memorandum Opinion, Order and

Authorization, 33 FCC Rcd. 3391, 3405 ¶ 40(r) (2018) (emphasis added).

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

Page 5

12 GHz band from NGSO operations.

In connection with SpaceX’s first-generation system,

AT&T asked the Commission for DBS protections and opposed SpaceX’s request for a

continuing waiver of the requirement that it receive a favorable or qualified favorable finding of

EPFD compliance by the ITU “[p]rior to the initiation of service . . . ”

Yet DIRECTV has now

lapsed into silence about the even more serious interference concerns raised by SpaceX’s

second-generation proposal.

Higher-Power Terrestrial/DBS Services. DISH has both satisfied itself, and has shown

to the Commission, that co-existence between 5G and DBS is possible. DISH has every reason

to be cautious about the introduction of higher-power services in the 12 GHz band, as its own

DBS service relies almost exclusively on the use of the band. DISH does not want to cannibalize

its own service or allow others to harmfully interfere with it.

The 2016 Coalition Studies, prepared by Tom Peters, former Chief Engineer of the

Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, showed that sharing between higher-

power two-way services and DBS is feasible even in densely populated areas with DBS users

receiving service from each DBS slot and all the 12 GHz band spectrum.

The only attempts to

rebut the studies consist of arguments put forth in a 2018 letter by AT&T and rehashes of the

same arguments.

The main problem with these criticisms is that they rely on a fundamental

misunderstanding of the studies. AT&T has accused Mr. Peters of “cherry-picking” areas with a

small number of DBS dishes, while in fact he assumed that these areas were densely packed with

DBS dishes, with one dish every one or two square meters. All of these objections have already

been thoroughly rebutted in this proceeding.

DIRECTV Does Not Appear to Significantly Rely on the 12 GHz Band

Ironically, the 5G objections do not come from the satellite television company that

actually remains a heavy user of the 12 GHz band (DISH), but from the other satellite television

company, which no longer puts it to extensive use (DIRECTV). DIRECTV serves its customers

mainly by using other bands—the Ka-band and Reverse Band Working (“RBW”) Broadcasting-

Satellite Service (“BSS”) payloads on its satellites at 99°, 101°, and 103° W.L.

In fact, a review of DIRECTV’s satellites and orbital slots suggests that DIRECTV has at

least as much bandwidth outside the 12 GHz band as DISH has in the 12 GHz band. In other

See AT&T Third Modification Reply at 2-3.

47 C.F.R. § 25.146(c).

Reply Comments of DISH Network Corporation, WT Docket No. 20-443, at 10-17 (July 7,

2021) (“DISH 12 GHz Reply”).

See Letter from Michael Goggin, AT&T, to Marlene Dortch, RM-11768, Technical Appendix

at 2 (June 14, 2018).

See Letter from Pantelis Michalopoulos, Counsel for DISH, to Marlene Dortch, FCC, WT

Docket No. 20-443, at 2-3 (Jan. 13, 2022); DISH 12 GHz Reply at 10-17.

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

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words, without using 1 MHz of the 12 GHz spectrum, DIRECTV could provide more direct-to-

home service than DISH does using the 12 GHz band. Specifically, DIRECTV is authorized to

use the full Ka-band and the full RBW-band at each of the 99° W.L., 101° W.L., and 103° W.L.

slots. The RBW band comprises 500 MHz of downlinks. The Ka-band includes 800 MHz of

clear spectrum for GSO downlinks, plus 200 MHz of additional Ka-band downlink spectrum,

which DIRECTV is also authorized to use. Considering only the 800 MHz of downlink Ka-band

spectrum and the 500 MHz of RBW spectrum, DIRECTV has a total of 3.9 GHz of non-DBS

downlink spectrum available from these slots. Adding the remaining Ka-band spectrum

increases that amount to 4.5 GHz. By comparison, DISH uses the 12 GHz band at six slots, for a

total of almost 3 GHz of 12 GHz band spectrum.

As a result, many DIRECTV subscribers receive most or all of their service in the Ka-

band, not implicating the 12 GHz band at all. And few, if any, DIRECTV subscribers seemingly

receive 12 GHz service from any slot other than 101⁰ W.L. Outside of 101° W.L., DIRECTV

nominally operates the T5 satellite at 110° W.L. and the T7S and T8 satellites at 119° W.L. But

none of these satellites seems extensively used. DIRECTV was apparently offering service to

Puerto Rico (but not the continental U.S.) from the T5 satellite at 110° W.L. But it now appears

that no programming is provided from that slot.

DIRECTV seems to have shifted its Puerto

Rico programming to a spot beam from its CONUS fleet operating from 99-103 degrees.

As for

the 119° W.L. slot, DIRECTV currently appears to operate only a few local spot beams from it.

DIRECTV is also reportedly phasing out that slot altogether and transitioning the programming

formerly distributed from it to the fleet operating at 99-103 degrees.

Indeed, DIRECTV has

already requested the deorbiting of T7S. The T5 and T8 satellites are themselves over 19 and 15

years old respectively. And DIRECTV has no plans to replace them: in 2018, AT&T’s CEO

DISH has access to the 12 GHz band at the 61.5° W.L., 72.7° W.L., 77° W.L., 110° W.L.,

119° W.L., and 129° W.L. orbital locations. The only slots where DISH does not use the entire

500 MHz of the 12 GHz band are 110⁰ W.L., where DISH operates 29 out of 32 channels, with

three assigned to DIRECTV, and 119⁰ W.L., where DISH operates 21 channels, with 11 assigned

to DIRECTV.

See Stuart Sweet, No Signal on DIRECTV’s 110 Satellite? Here’s the Solution, Solid Signal

Blog (June 7, 2020), https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/no-signal-on-directvs-110-satellite-

heres-the-solution.

See AT&T Directv Puerto Rico, Satellite Guys Forum (Nov. 21, 2018),

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/at-t-directv-puerto-rico.379506; Stuart Sweet, Is AT&T

Getting Rid of the 95 Satellite Location?, Solid Signal Blog (Nov. 10, 2019),

https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/is-att-getting-rid-of-the-95-satellite-location.

See DIRECTV USA on T8 at 119.0°W, LyngSat (last updated Apr. 1, 2022)

https://www.lyngsat.com/packages/DirecTV-USA-119W.html.

See Stuart Sweet, Is AT&T Getting Rid of the 95 Satellite Location?, Solid Signal Blog (Nov.

10, 2019), https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/is-att-getting-rid-of-the-95-satellite-location.

Marlene Dortch

April 4, 2022

Page 7

stated that the company had “launched our last satellite.”

This has been true for quite a while

as DIRECTV has not launched a DBS-only satellite in the past 15 years.

The Commission Can Both Advance 5G and Satellite Services in the 12 GHz Band

If MVDDS services are unshackled from the outdated restrictions to which they remain

subject, such as the prohibition on two-way services and overly restrictive power limits, they can

be used in 5G offerings, helping advance and cement the 5G revolution and United States 5G

leadership. So, the option for the Commission is: all of the above—all of the services (MVDDS,

DBS, and NGSO) to which the band is already allocated, and the benefits of 5G? Or, some of

the above, and no 5G in the band? For the public interest, the first choice is the only one.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Pantelis Michalopoulos

Pantelis Michalopoulos

Christopher Bjornson

Counsel to DISH Network Corporation

See Caleb Henry, DIRECTV Owner AT&T Says It’s Done Buying Satellites, Space News (Dec.

4, 2018), https://spacenews.com/directv-owner-att-says-its-done-buying-satellites.