Cellular Backhaul and Protection of C-band

1. 1
Protection of C-band
WRC-15
Victoria Falls
14 April 2015

2. Africa’s C-band Satellite User Groups:
Achieving Policy Goals and Economic Objectives
Corporate
Networks
Peace Keeping
Disaster
Preparedness
Wireless
Extension
Services Telemedicine
Internet
Connectivity
Maritime
Communications
Distance
Education
C-band
TV contribution
Aviation Security

3. Extracts of Euroconsult study (1/2)
“The C-band market represents a very important part of the satellite activity in Africa:
• Close to 50 satellites covering at least part of Africa with C-band capacity in 2014,
out of around 72 satellites covering the region. Overall, satellite operators supply a
total capacity of ~14 GHz in C-band in 2014 in Africa (~50% of “regular” capacity
supply in the region, i.e. excluding HTS proprietary military satellites).
• Satellite capacity usage in C-band stood ~10.5 27 GHz in Sub Saharan Africa
(“SSA”) in 2013, corresponding to a fill rate close to 80% of capacity supplied, and to
around 58% of the total satellite capacity used in the region.
• A recent trend in Africa has been the emergence of regional/national systems. All
satellites procured by organizations in SSA (i.e. Rascom, Nigcomsat, DRC and
Angola) are carrying a C-band payload. Information available suggests that the C-
band represents 20%-70% of the satellite capacity, with an average of ~45%.
• We estimate that the C-band capacity market stands at more than $300M in SSA,
under an assumption of global average of ~$2,500/MHz/month for leased capacity.
Capacity pricing can largely vary depending on the application.”

4. • In all assessed countries, we found that C-band is extensively used for
communication networks, often of critical importance to these countries'
economy, society or security, across a great variety of applications, for both private
companies and government organizations, and in both rural areas and city centers;
• A large part of these networks rely on C-band because of stringent requirements
for reliable and uninterrupted communications, which could not be met using
higher frequency bands with greater susceptibility to rain fade. Users are often ready
to pay for more expensive antennas and potentially higher priced capacity to benefit
from the advantages of the C-band;
• The governments of the three countries all have invested in various C-band
networks to optimize the efficiency of their operations and to support key
development and security policies;
• Most C-band networks involve a mix of sites located in both urban and rural
areas;
• The availability of C-band satellite links is of clear, direct and often considerable
importance to a variety of economic sectors, in all three focus countries, including
for the broadcasting sector, the financial sector, the communications, the oil & gas
and mining sectors.
Extracts of Euroconsult study (2/2)

5. Unique Attributes of Satellite C-band
services
• C-band satellite services cannot easily be replicated at other satellite bands or
via terrestrial means
• Geographic reach. C-band easily covers entire continents and oceans.
• Economically viable for intercontinental and global communications
• Efficient for Smaller or hard-to-reach markets and low density regions
• Particularly ideal for point-to-multipoint applications
• Resistance to rain-fade, making it better suited for tropical or high-rain areas.

6. Wrong assumptions from the IMT
• Wrong assumptions leading to figure of 1,960 total megahertz of spectrum
needed by IMT by 2020
– based on the amount of terrestrial mobile spectrum that may be needed
in the very most densely populated locations in the world
– the report’s estimates, even for the most densely populated locations, are
substantially overestimated by least two orders of magnitude (a factor of
100 or more)
– user densities assumed in excess of 100,000 users/km2, with some
entries higher than 200,000 users/km2. (most densely populated urban
areas rarely exceed 30,000 inhabitants/km2)
– excessive expectations about the use of super-high-speed data services
such as streaming high definition video
– underestimation of Wifi offload

7. There is Still Plenty of Spectrum
Available to be Licensed
• Across the world less than 50% of
mobile spectrum is licensed and even
less of it is in use
• In Nigeria, a potential total of 1025
MHz could be used for IMT services;
825MHz is already allocated for IMT
at regional level; only 420 MHz
licensed.
• Same for Namibia, Tunisia,
Botswana, Uganda (can still license 4
times the current amount of MHz)
• Despite the fact that a significant
majority of Region 1 countries opted
in for the footnote, very little
implementation of IMT in these bands
has been observed

8. Inadequacy of C-band for the IMT
• Inadequacy of C-band for mobile services:
– effective range of a macro-cell mobile base station in
C-band is about 2 kilometers in uncluttered conditions,
far less than in lower spectrum bands
– this would dramatically escalate terrestrial network
construction costs
– very poor penetration of buildings, particularly modern
“green” construction, resulting in very poor reception
indoors
• Other options for IMT: e.g. “digital dividend” broadcasting
spectrum released at around 700 MHz as a result of
digitalization of broadcasting channels and the release of
surplus spectrum

9. • ITU studies – Studies have concluded that protection distances of between
51-430 km are necessary to allow co-frequency sharing
– Adjacent band protection distances to avoid LNB overload of FSS
receivers are between 10-31 km
• Government, strategic, and commercial FSS services in the C-band will
suffer:
• WiMAX testing led to 30% of TV
households in Bolivia missing some
of World Cup 2006
• Similar testing in Hong Kong led to
300,000 households across Asia to
lose their TV service
Sharing between FSS and IMT is not
feasible

10. A wide Support in Favor of No Change
“No Change” for Agenda Item 1.1 is further supported by:
• World Broadcasting Association
• International Civil Aviation Authority
• UN World Food Program
• Nigeria, Senegal and a growing list of African administrations
• The International Maritime Organization
• The World Meteorological Organization
• The Pacific Islands
• A number of Central and South American nations
• Most of South Eastern Asia nations
• RCC (South East Europe) countries

11. Marie-Amandine Coydon
marie-amandine.coydon@intelsat.com
Q&A