MELBOURNE, FLA. — USSI Global, the provider of customized broadcast, network, and digital signage services, has completed the first phase of its project management services for Intelsat’s accelerated C-band clearing and relocation activities.
Completed in October 2021, USSI Global provided logistics and field services that were essential in supporting Intelsat’s customer service transitions, technology upgrades and earth station filtering required to meet the aggressive Phase I schedule as mandated by the FCC’s Report and Order.
The FCC’s C-band spectrum transition will clear 300MHz of the C-band’s 500MHz bandwidth for 5G mobile services by December 2023. USSI Global has been working closely with Intelsat and other satellite companies to relocate the TV, radio, and other services they carry to the upper 200MHz of C-band spectrum approved for on-going satellite contribution and distribution.
Intelsat selected USSI Global as one of the primary vendors to help manage and execute the challenging transition across all phases, which has a core focus of freeing the spectrum for flexible use and mitigating 5G interference risks. USSI Global developed and successfully executed a comprehensive program management plan that started with call center outreach to approximately 2,500 sites to inventory C-band antennas and scope the associated transition work at each site. USSI Global’s program management and logistics team subsequently handled all equipment procurement and logistics for these sites, ensuring that systems were delivered in alignment with transitional deadlines.
USSI Global field engineers and technicians were deployed around the country to install 5G passband filters and antennas at nearly 300 sites. In addition, new satellite IRDs (integrated receiver/decoders) were installed at select programmer affiliate sites to help implement the compression technology upgrades required by Intelsat’s Transition Plan.
USSI Global will assist Intelsat to execute a similar program management plan for Phase II of the transition, which requires approximately three times as many sites and antennas to be transitioned, with the target completion ahead of the FCC’s December 2023 deadline.
“The Intelsat project stands apart from other recently completed C-band relocation projects we managed due to the intense volume of inventory,” said USSI Global COO Anthony Morelli. “USSI Global’s strong program management, logistical support, team of field engineers, technicians and call center support staff, provided Intelsat with the confidence they needed to leverage USSI Global’s entire portfolio of 5G interference mitigation services.”
USSI Global CEO David S. Christiano added, “We started talking with Intelsat several years before we commenced the project and could not be prouder of the outcome. There was exceptional teamwork between Intelsat and USSI Global to pull off this project in the middle of a pandemic.”
Tom McNamara, Vice President of C-Band Transition Program at Intelsat commented, “We were extremely pleased with the Phase I outcome and have commenced the outreach for Phase II in January along with continuing IRD deployments. We could not have achieved this without the efforts from USSI Global. The close collaboration and partnership between both companies has been critical in enabling Intelsat to successfully execute a highly complex program and achieve Phase I accelerated relocation.”
Morelli adds that USSI Global is in discussion with Intelsat to provide additional post-installation services following the completion of Phase 2.
— Reporting by Brian Galante
