The group set up by the Communications Committee to deal with implementation of the regulatory framework for pan-European systems that supply mobile satellite services in the 2 GHz frequency bands held its 19th meeting last 22 January at the European Commission’s offices in Brussels.
In the first part of the meeting the representatives of the selected systems, Inmarsat and Echostar Mobile Limited (EML), gave a presentation on the systems’ current state of development. In that regard, it is important to stress that Inmarsat reported that SpaceX will not be able to launch the satellite before 1 December 2016 (last roadmap milestone); the launch has been pushed back to the period from April to June 2017.
The current status of authorisations already granted by the European Union member states was also reported. EML and Inmarsat have notably obtained authorisation (or comfort letters) from most of the member states for the satellite component and around ten authorisations for the terrestrial component, i.e. for the complementary ground stations.
During the second part of the meeting, in which only the member state representatives participated, the discussion focused on how new enforcement measures should be applied, given that Inmarsat will probably not fulfil the last roadmap milestone, and also on whether the member states accept that Inmarsat installs on aircraft only terminals that communicate with AeroCGC (i.e. no terminal that can communicate with the satellite) – it was not possible to reach any consensual conclusion.
