Space News by Jason Rainbow — July 18, 2022
DirecTV said July 18 its satellite TV customers face major disruption if broadcast rival Dish Network gets to deploy 5G wireless services in the 12 GHz spectrum band.
Mobile operations in the band “would cause extensive harmful interference” to millions of DirecTV receivers across the United States, the company told the Federal Communications Commission in a letter.
According to a study DirecTV commissioned from satellite consulting firm Savid, interference levels would exceed limits currently in place in the U.S. to protect Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) systems by a factor of 100 to 100,000.
This would impact areas “extending well beyond the intended coverage area of the mobile base stations,” wrote Stacy Fuller, DirecTV’s senior vice president of external affairs.
Fuller said the study is based on conservative assumptions that significantly understate interference levels, because neither the FCC nor the band’s mobile proponents have set out rules for the proposed two-way network.
Dish and RS Access, a spectrum holding company, have licenses in the band that they want to upgrade for terrestrial 5G services.
Both Dish and DirecTV are already using frequencies in the band to provide linear TV programming.
More:
https://spacenews.com/directv-says-5g-plan-would-degrade-satellite-tv-reception/
