<DOC>
<DOCID> nyt960910.0378 </DOCID>
<STORYID cat=f pri=r> A2394 </STORYID>
<SLUG fv=tia-z> BC-<COREF ID="1">HUGHES</COREF>-<COREF ID="3">FCC</COREF>-BLOOM </SLUG>
<DATE> &LR; </DATE>
<NWORDS> <COREF ID="6">09-10</COREF> </NWORDS>
<PREAMBLE>
BC-<COREF ID="0" TYPE="IDENT" REF="1">HUGHES</COREF>-<COREF ID="2" TYPE="IDENT" REF="3">FCC</COREF>-BLOOM
<COREF ID="21" MIN="PROJECTS"><COREF ID="11">GM</COREF>, <COREF ID="13">GE</COREF> PROJECTS</COREF> LIKELY TO GET <COREF ID="15" MIN="AIRWAVES">NEEDED AIRWAVES</COREF> FROM <COREF ID="4" TYPE="IDENT" REF="2">FCC</COREF> <COREF ID="27">THURSDAY</COREF>
(For use by New York Times News Service clients)
By Liza McDonald
c.1996 <COREF ID="8">Bloomberg Business News</COREF>
</PREAMBLE>
<TEXT>
<p>
Washington, <COREF ID="5" TYPE="IDENT" REF="6">Sept. 10</COREF> (<COREF ID="7" TYPE="IDENT" REF="8">Bloomberg</COREF>) -- <COREF ID="17" MIN="systems">Satellite systems to deliver
video services to <COREF ID="43">Latin America</COREF> planned by <COREF ID="31" MIN="Hughes Electronics Corp. and General Electric Co."><COREF ID="9" TYPE="IDENT" REF="0" MIN="Hughes Electronics Corp."><COREF ID="10" REF="11" TYPE="IDENT">General Motors Corp.</COREF>'s
Hughes Electronics Corp.</COREF> and <COREF ID="12" TYPE="IDENT" REF="13">General Electric Co.</COREF></COREF></COREF> are likely to get
the <COREF ID="14" TYPE="IDENT" REF="15" MIN="airwaves">airwaves <COREF ID="16" TYPE="IDENT" REF="17">they</COREF> need</COREF> from <COREF ID="18" TYPE="IDENT" REF="4" MIN="regulators">federal regulators</COREF>.
<p>
<COREF ID="69" MIN="Plans">Plans for <COREF ID="20" TYPE="IDENT" REF="21"><COREF ID="19" TYPE="IDENT" REF="9">Hughes</COREF>' <COREF ID="55">Galaxy VIII(I)</COREF> project and <COREF ID="22" TYPE="IDENT" REF="12">GE</COREF>'s <COREF ID="64">GE Americom</COREF>
project</COREF></COREF> depend on the <COREF ID="29" MIN="allocation"><COREF ID="23" TYPE="IDENT" REF="18">Federal Communications Commission</COREF>'s
allocation of a swath of spectrum</COREF> that will let <COREF ID="24" TYPE="IDENT" REF="20">their</COREF> earth
stations communicate with satellites in space.
<p>
Scheduled for a vote at the <COREF ID="109" MIN="meeting"><COREF ID="25" TYPE="IDENT" REF="23">agency</COREF>'s meeting</COREF> on <COREF ID="26" TYPE="IDENT" REF="27">Thursday</COREF>, the
<COREF ID="28" TYPE="IDENT" REF="29" MIN="allocation">expected allocation</COREF> will let the <COREF ID="30" TYPE="IDENT" REF="31">companies</COREF> transmit video pictures,
phone calls, and other data from earth stations to orbiting
satellites, and then to customers in <COREF ID="36">Mexico</COREF>, the Caribbean, Central
America, and South America.
<p>
<COREF ID="32" TYPE="IDENT" REF="30" MIN="companies">Both companies</COREF> said <COREF ID="33" TYPE="IDENT" REF="32">they</COREF> expect to use <COREF ID="34" TYPE="IDENT" REF="16">the systems</COREF> primarily to
deliver digital video services to Latin American subscribers' own
dishes and to cable company receivers for distribution to cable
subscribers.
<p>
<COREF ID="39" MIN="Grupo Televisa SA"><COREF ID="35" TYPE="IDENT" REF="36">Mexico</COREF>'s Grupo Televisa SA</COREF>, Multivision SA and Medcom SA all
have plans to deliver direct-to-home video satellite service to
<COREF ID="37" TYPE="IDENT" REF="35">Mexico</COREF> within a year.
<p>
<COREF ID="38" TYPE="IDENT" REF="39" MIN="Televisa">Televisa, <COREF ID="41" TYPE="IDENT" REF="38" MIN="broadcaster"><COREF ID="40" TYPE="IDENT" REF="37">Mexico</COREF>'s largest broadcaster</COREF>,</COREF> has formed an agreement
with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., <COREF ID="51">Brazil</COREF>'s Globo television
network, and Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc. to offer
direct-to-home service throughout <COREF ID="42" TYPE="IDENT" REF="43">Latin America</COREF>.
<p>
<COREF ID="45">Turner Broadcasting System Inc.</COREF>, for <COREF ID="44" TYPE="IDENT" REF="45">its</COREF> part, agreed in July to
distribute Cable News Network and three other cable channels to
Latin American subscribers together with a <COREF ID="46" TYPE="IDENT" REF="47">group</COREF> called <COREF ID="47">Galaxy
Latin America</COREF>, composed of <COREF ID="49" TYPE="IDENT" REF="47" STATUS="OPT"><COREF ID="48" TYPE="IDENT" REF="10">GM</COREF>'s DirecTV, Venezuela's Cisneros Group
of Cos., <COREF ID="50" TYPE="IDENT" REF="51">Brazil</COREF>'s Televisao Abril, and <COREF ID="52" TYPE="IDENT" REF="40">Mexico</COREF>'s MVS Multivision</COREF>.
<p>
<COREF ID="53" TYPE="IDENT" REF="19">Hughes</COREF>' <COREF ID="54" TYPE="IDENT" REF="55">Galaxy VIII(I)</COREF> plan would use one satellite, which the
<COREF ID="56" TYPE="IDENT" REF="53">company</COREF> estimates will cost $230 million to build and launch.
<COREF ID="57" TYPE="IDENT" REF="56">Hughes</COREF> expects <COREF ID="58" TYPE="IDENT" REF="54">Galaxy VIII(I)</COREF> will bring in <COREF ID="60">$30 million</COREF> in <COREF ID="59" TYPE="IDENT" REF="60">revenue</COREF>
in <COREF ID="61" TYPE="IDENT" REF="58">its</COREF> first year and $58 million each year for the following 11
years, according to filings at the <COREF ID="62" TYPE="IDENT" REF="25">FCC</COREF>.
<p>
<COREF ID="63" TYPE="IDENT" REF="64">GE Americom</COREF> filed <COREF ID="65" TYPE="IDENT" REF="63">its</COREF> cost and revenue assumptions
confidentially at the <COREF ID="66" TYPE="IDENT" REF="62">agency</COREF>. <COREF ID="67" TYPE="IDENT" REF="65">Its</COREF> plan calls for two satellites and
a spare.
<p>
The <COREF ID="68" TYPE="IDENT" REF="69">plans</COREF> are significant, said <COREF ID="71" MIN="Scott Blake Harris">Scott Blake Harris, <COREF ID="70" TYPE="IDENT" REF="71" MIN="chief">former FCC
international bureau chief</COREF>,</COREF> as ``yet another indication of the
health and strength of the <COREF ID="96" MIN="industry"><COREF ID="98">U.S.</COREF> satellite industry</COREF>.''
<p>
The <COREF ID="72" TYPE="IDENT" REF="14" MIN="airwaves">airwaves to be allocated</COREF> are currently used by the <COREF ID="74">National
Aeronautics and Space Administration</COREF> for <COREF ID="76" MIN="system"><COREF ID="73" TYPE="IDENT" REF="74">its</COREF> tracking and data
relay system</COREF>. The <COREF ID="75" TYPE="IDENT" REF="76">system</COREF>, among other things, monitors the <COREF ID="78">Space
Shuttle</COREF>, helps to retrieve satellites, and relays communications
between ground stations and low-orbiting spacecraft including the
<COREF ID="77" TYPE="IDENT" REF="78">Shuttle</COREF>. <COREF ID="81" MIN="functions">Those functions</COREF> are likely to be slowly shifted to another
slice of spectrum, while the <COREF ID="79" TYPE="IDENT" REF="72" MIN="airwaves">airwaves <COREF ID="80" TYPE="IDENT" REF="81">they</COREF>'ve historically used</COREF> are
turned over, in part, to satellite services such as the ones
planned by <COREF ID="82" TYPE="IDENT" REF="22">GE</COREF> and <COREF ID="83" TYPE="IDENT" REF="48">GM</COREF>. Other companies that support the <COREF ID="84" TYPE="IDENT" REF="28">allocation</COREF>
and may use <COREF ID="85" TYPE="IDENT" REF="84">it</COREF> include Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Loral Space and
Communications, International Private Satellite Partners/Orion
Atlantic Capital Corp., and Comsat Corp.
<p>
No opposing comments on the <COREF ID="86" TYPE="IDENT" REF="85">allocation</COREF> were filed at the <COREF ID="87" TYPE="IDENT" REF="66">agency</COREF>.
<p>
The spectrum shift comes at <COREF ID="88" TYPE="IDENT" REF="57">Hughes</COREF>' initiative. The <COREF ID="89" TYPE="IDENT" REF="88">company</COREF>
asked the <COREF ID="90" TYPE="IDENT" REF="87">FCC</COREF> in March of 1995 to fix an imbalance in the uplink
and downlink airwaves available to fixed satellite services so that
the spectrum could be more effectively used.
<p>
``The downlink bands are not paired with any uplink bands,'' the
<COREF ID="91" TYPE="IDENT" REF="89">company</COREF> wrote. Indeed, for 1000 megahertz allocated for <COREF ID="93" MIN="downlinks">satellite
downlinks</COREF>, or <COREF ID="92" TYPE="IDENT" REF="93" MIN="transmissions">transmissions from satellites to earth stations</COREF>, the
<COREF ID="94" TYPE="IDENT" REF="90">agency</COREF> had only set aside 500 megahertz for uplinks. That's meant
that half of the downlink capacity has been unusable, because no
corresponding uplink airwaves existed.
<p>
``It is . . . critical to the competitiveness of the <COREF ID="95" TYPE="IDENT" REF="96" MIN="industry"><COREF ID="97" TYPE="IDENT" REF="98">United
States</COREF> satellite industry</COREF>, both at home and abroad, that the
<COREF ID="99" TYPE="IDENT" REF="94">commission</COREF> allocate'' more airwaves for fixed satellite uplinks,
<COREF ID="100" TYPE="IDENT" REF="91">Hughes</COREF> said.
<p>
A <COREF ID="104" MIN="plan">similar plan</COREF> was set by the International Telecommunications
Union at the <COREF ID="102">World Administrative Radio Conference</COREF> in 1992, and
adopted at the <COREF ID="101" TYPE="IDENT" REF="102" MIN="meeting">same meeting</COREF> in 1995.
<p>
The <COREF ID="103" TYPE="IDENT" REF="104">plan</COREF> hadn't yet been implemented in the <COREF ID="105" TYPE="IDENT" REF="97">U.S.</COREF> because
interference with <COREF ID="107" TYPE="IDENT" REF="80" MIN="functions"><COREF ID="106" TYPE="IDENT" REF="73">NASA</COREF>'s radar functions</COREF> hadn't been worked out.
<p>
Also at <COREF ID="108" TYPE="IDENT" REF="109" MIN="meeting"><COREF ID="110" TYPE="IDENT" REF="26">Thursday</COREF>'s meeting</COREF>, the <COREF ID="111" TYPE="IDENT" REF="99">FCC</COREF> plans to formalize the
process public utility companies use to become certified as
telecommunications providers.
</TEXT>
<TRAILER>
NYT-<COREF ID="112" TYPE="IDENT" REF="5">09-10-96</COREF> 1604EDT
</TRAILER>
</DOC>