Washington-In filings with the Federal Communications Commission, Northpoint Technology Ltd. formally opposed a request filed last month by Pegasus Communications Corp. to license the 12.2-gigahertz to 12.7-GHz bandwidth for a terrestrial broadband service.
Under the proposal, Pegasus would share spectrum with direct-broadcast satellite providers.
Northpoint wants the same spectrum for its own terrestrial service, but the DBS industry is concerned that the proposed service would degrade signals to the millions of DBS systems already in use. Northpoint has resisted repeated requests for independent interference testing.
Earlier this month, seven House Republicans, including Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Texas), wrote the FCC asking for signal-interference testing on Northpoint as a condition to licensing.
In its FCC filing, dated May 23, Northpoint called the Pegasus terrestrial-license application "a transparent effort by a DBS provider to forestall the introduction of Northpoint's innovative terrestrial technology and competition to DBS and incumbent cable operators."
But a spokeswoman for Pegasus, which is a DirecTV Inc. reseller, said earlier this month that terrestrial-broadband services have long been part of the company's plans, and the company's chairman has made public mention of those plans in the past.
In its own FCC filings, Pegasus said it would agree to independent testing to determine whether its technology would interfere with DBS or competing terrestrial services.
