By Brandon Matthews

I really hate conspiracy theories, but you really have to question the motives of the FCC when it comes to Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI). It took the agency nearly 17 months to approve the merger of the two satellite radio providers, which nearly resulted in bankruptcy for the newly combined company. On March 4th, the FCC granted special temporary authority for Sirius to broadcast in Haiti for 30 days to assist in relief efforts, following the devastating earthquake which occurred in Mid-January. Now it appears that the FCC, after years of legal wranglings, is going to recommend the approval of certain wireless services in the spectrum adjacent to Satellite Radio — services that it willingly admits will cause devastating interference to Satellite Radio. Enough is enough!

Sirius XM operates its satellite radio service in the 2320-2345 MHz range. The cost of this spectrum was approximately 170 million dollars. Both Sirius and XM then spent billions of dollars to create a service which is now consumed by 35 million people in the U.S. Along the way, the FCC auctioned spectrum on both ends of the Satellite Radio spectrum, with the express condition that the services allowed could not interfere with the SDARS service. The FCC forthrightly and unequivocally stated that protecting Satellite Radio may “make mobile operations in the WCS spectrum technologically infeasible.” As a result, the entire WCS spectrum was auctioned for only 14 million dollars.

As wireless carriers become desperate for increased bandwidth, they are seeking to broaden their use of the space beyond that of which it was intended to be used for. Testing has confirmed beyond any doubt that interference to the SDARS service will occur. Common sense would dictate that such a scheme by the wireless carriers would be denied. Unfortunately, it seems that the FCC is about to propose a plan to allow just this to happen. The only recourse for Sirius XM would be to file complaints as issues occur, to be remedied after the fact and through unknown means. Any complaints will no doubt take years to resolve, taken on an individual basis.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Genechowski, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin writes:

We are extremely disturbed by the proposal. The proposed rules seem to bear little resemblance to the technical record in this proceeding. More importantly, the proposal raises the real and direct threat of crippling interference to our 35 million current listeners and the 90 million satellite radio-equipped vehicles that will share the road with mobile WCS by 2015.

• We were told bluntly that the staff proposal would enable the deployment of WCS “usage models” that would cause interference to satellite radio consumers.

• The staff proposal for WCS mobile transmitters in the C and D blocks – the blocks immediately adjacent to our satellites – would double the power levels the WCS licensees themselves asked for, and would exceed the levels the WCS licensees themselves demonstrated in Ashburn, Virginia.

We were told not to worry that the relaxed WCS technical standards might cause interference to satellite radio, because WCS licensees would bear the ultimate responsibility to avoid interference.

The staff offered no details about any sort of coordination or complaint process that would identify and eliminate sources of interference created by WCS networks and particularly mobile transmitters. This entire process presumes that consumers would complain instead of just discontinuing their subscriptions. Any such cumbersome, after-the-fact system would not work to protect consumers and would place the Commission in the impossible role of policing interference to all of our subscribers.

If this outrage were to occur, I would suggest that Sirius XM offer to allocate its bandwidth directly adjacent to the WCS spectrum, for its FCC mandated,”voluntary” minority channel set aside. I’m sure the FCC would think twice at that point, knowing the space that was purchased with certain rights of protection would be rendered basically useless.

This is a call to arms! If you are Sirius XM subscriber, listener, investor, or just a concerned American over the abuse of government, you need to act and act now. Tell the FCC how you feel about this abuse of government. Let them know that you will vote according to their actions. You can submit your opposition here. Click on the link to manually submit a comment.  You must include the docket number 07-293 in the first box.

NOTE: Satwaves hereby authorizes the reprinting of this article in part or in full by any website or publication that would like to assist in this effort.

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