Echostar 8 86.5W FCC Filing

[nelson61]

They have filed to move E8 to 86.5W and operate on 32 transponders. It will no longer be needed at 77W after the new Quetzsat satellite is in service (late 2011).

Echostar 4 has a pending application to move to 86.5 with service beginning in the first quarter 2011.

Echostr 8 86.5W FCC

 

[MikeD-C05]

I believe that the VIP service from Echostar uses the 86.5 slot . They are for small cable companies that use Echostar for their national cable channels and for their locals.

 

[kikenovic]

I wonder if this means Dish Mexico will have to reorient all of their subs.

 

[mike123abc]

It is interesting that they are still trying to justify not moving a satellite to 148... E3 may work at 148, perhaps we will move it there!

I wonder what service they could really provide from 86.5 with E8 since it would have to point south like it does at 77. It makes sense with 77 since they can put a spot beam satellite there and avoid hitting Canada, plus it is to the side of the Canadian frequencies. 86.5 is right in the middle of the Canada slots.

 

[JSheridan]

I believe that the VIP service from Echostar uses the 86.5 slot . They are for small cable companies that use Echostar for their national cable channels and for their locals.

I believe that the VIP IPTV service comes from AMC-16 at 85W which is a regular Ku linear polarized satellite, which is outside the DBS band.

 

[nelson61]

Quick shot of the footprints.

It takes a little more time to work up the map embeds.

Full service coverage of Mexico and Southeast coverage of Conus.

Even though they talk of the HD service into SE, it sure looks like it would fit hand in glove with 77W for their Dish Mexico service (77 only has 8 Mexico transponders).

 

[MikeD-C05]

I believe that the VIP IPTV service comes from AMC-16 at 85W which is a regular Ku linear polarized satellite, which is outside the DBS band.

Could be. It has been a while since I read up on the VIP service.

 

[DishSubLA]

Probably a solution for the mandatory carriage (by 2012, I think?) of all HD Locals in DMA's where they currently offer HD LIL's.

 

[rocatman]

I believe there is a phase in requirement where Dish will have to carry all the channels in a DMA if they carry any. I believe the first phase is 30% but I don't remember the deadline date for that. Regardless, Dish is going to need a lot more bandwidth in the future for locals.

Regarding the 86.5 W slot, Dish's FCC application was for reverse circular polarization to avoid interference with the Canadian DBS slots at 82 W and 91 W. Obviously Dish's on-orbit satellites such as E-4 or E-8 don't have this capability therefore their use can only be in the U.S. away from the Canadian border. I don't think Dish at this time has the authority to use the 86.5 W slot in Mexico. Dish could build a new satellite with this reverse polarization for CONUS use at 86.5 W but it would require a new LNB for subscriber's dishes. Another option would be to eventually build a spotbeam satellite or satellites for this slot and since it appears that most if not all Eastern Arc national programming will eventually come from 72.7 W, a standard 100.x dish could be used. These spotbeams could only service DMAs that aren't too close to the Canadian border. It should be noted that the 77 W slot may also have this coverage limitation for the Canadian border for both CONUS and spotbeam because of possible interference with the 82 W slot.

I believe the proposed move of E-4 to 86.5 W is only to try to hold the slot and not use it for any subscriber porgramming but I could see E-8 being used there. I am not surprised that Dish is raising the possibility of E-3 being moved to 148 W. I don't think Dish can really count on E-3 to reliably help out E-12 and E-15 at 61.5 W and besides E-6 is there as a backup but it is also a backup for 72.7 W. Once QuetzSat-1 is launched to 77 W, in the second half of 2011, Dish will have E-1, E-3, E-4 and E-8 to fill in spots unless one or more of them die before then. When E-16 gets launched in 2012 to 61.5 W on a Zenit by Sea Launch, E-12 will probably be freed-up unless Dish plans to use both E-16 and E-12 in spotbeam mode from 61.5 W. The uplink limitations of E-12 make its continual use in spotbeam mode less appealing after E-16 is operational. It can be used in CONUS mode but only on 13 TP frequencies.

 

[nelson61]

flipping the frequencies between even and odd is no longer relevant or needed after they had to resubmit beam patterns to eliminate interference after Telsat refused to accept the frequency shift and the proposed almost full conus coverage. So they resubmitted moving the Conus beam way south. The standard transmission polarities can cover that footprint with no canadian interference.

 

[Mr Tony]

I believe that the VIP IPTV service comes from AMC-16 at 85W which is a regular Ku linear polarized satellite, which is outside the DBS band.

Could be. It has been a while since I read up on the VIP service.

correct. It is at 85W KU Band.

 

[nelson61]

FCC smells a rat in Echostar's 86.5W filings.

FCC Letter Request for 86.5W construction details

Several applicants have been using a stream of paper to keep slots tied up while not constructing and launching the permitted satellites.

Echostar is presently under sanction for failure to fullfill their committments on several other slots and can not apply for any new slots untill their backlog of unlaunched satellites is reduced below 3.

 

[navychop]

Thank you. Very interesting letter, and written in plain English, too!

 

[r10fret]

Well, it doesn't look like E8 will be making the trip to 86.5 no matter what now.

 

[digiblur]

Dish will have E-1, E-3, E-4 and E-8 to fill in spots unless one or more of them die before then.

Don't forget about E7 sitting at 119.

 

[r10fret]

What about E6 is it still usable? Didn't do much of anything when it moved to 61.5 as a backup for E3. Moving E7 should not be an option for WA fail safe redundancy reasons.