Ofcom in trouble over S Band

The UK telecom regulator Ofcom is being sued by the satellite services provider ICO Global Communications, in a disagreement over the EU’s decision to award rival satellite providers with the licences for the European satellite S Band.

Ofcom has been implicated in the matter because it initially recommended that ICO Global should be given the licence for the S Band, but then wrote to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is responsible for issuing the licence, asking it to de-register the licence.

Now that Solaris Mobile and Inmarsat have been granted the S Band licence, ICO Global is taking the EU and now Ofcom to court over the allocation of the European S Band licences.

This could be a move to gain a foot in Europe, as ICO Global already has one satellite in the air operating in the S-Band, but not over Europe.