By Mitchell Lazarus, CommLawBlog, April 21, 2014
FCC gives co-primary status to "Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft" uplinks. >
> The FCC has given in-flight Internet an upgrade.
>
> Late in 2012, the FCC authorized use of earth stations installed
> on aircraft to communicate with Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS)
> spacecraft in geostationary orbits. Called "Earth Stations Aboard
> Aircraft" (ESAA), the service delivers wholesale Internet service
> to the airplane, where it gets parceled out to individual
> passengers via Wi-Fi
>
> Uplinks from the aircraft use the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, shared with
> (among others) the small VSAT terminals we often see on the roofs
> of gas stations and chain hotels. The FCC tentatively assigned
> ESAA secondary status, meaning that ESAA would have to
> (a) protect the VSATs and other primary users from interference,
> and (b) accept any interference from them. But the FCC stopped
> short of etching that decision in stone: a Notice of Proposed
> Rulemaking attached to the order asked whether the FCC should
> elevate ESAA to co-primary status.
Continued:
formatting link
-or-
formatting link
Neal McLain