Page 81 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

Telesatellite Policy and DBS, 1962-1984 69

Conference of Posts and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT)
in 1962 (partly in response to Comsat)- instead pushed for the forma-
tion of Intelsat. The Soviet Union rejected participation largely because
of the prospect of American dominance. See Hudson, Communication
Satellites, pp. 28-32.
43 Dan Schiller, Telematics and Government (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1982)
p. 171. This interest in ending the dominance of mostly British-owned
transoceanic cable systems also was a long-stated goal of US public
sector officials. In 1945, James Lawrence Fly (Chairman of the FCC),
referring to the United Kingdom's ownership of much of the world's
cables (and thus its control over their use), stated that '[a]mong the
artificial restraints to the free development of commerce throughout the
world none is more irksome and less justifiable than the control of
communication facilities by one country'. Quoted in Herbert I. Schiller.
'Genesis of the Free Flow of Information Principles' in A. Mattelart and
S. Seigelaub (eds), Communication and Class Struggle, Vol. 1 (New
York: International General, 1979) p. 346.
44 See US Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee
on International Organizations and Movements. Hearings on 'Modem
Communications and Foreign Policy.' 90th Cong., lst sess., 8 and 9
February 1967.
45 Wilson P. Dizard, Office of Policy and Research, US Information
Agency, quoted in ibid., p. 67.
46 Tunstall, Communications Deregulation, pp. 64--5.
47 Sarnoff quoted in Lessing, 'Cinderella in the Sky,' p. 196.
48 Lessing, 'Cinderella in the Sky,' p. 196.
49 Ibid., p. 198.
50 The main reason why this conversion is necessary involves the immedi-
ate proximity of the satellite's receiving and transmitting antennas. In
many systems, the reception and the transmission units are one and the
same. By using different frequencies, interference between the reception
signal and the transmission signal can be minimalized. See D.J. Flint,
'Satellite Transponders' in B.G. Evans (ed.), Satellite Communication
Systems (London: Peter Peregrinus, 1991) esp. pp. 237-8.
51 Lessing, 'Cinderella in the Sky,' p. 198.
52 The use of a small ground receiver was considered to have been very
important as it significantly increased the number of people able to
receive transmissions and, subsequently, the variety and success of
potential DBS services. At the 1977 World Administrative Radio Con-
ference (W ARC-77) -a regulatory entity of the ITU- high-power DBS
systems were allocated a frequency range in what is called the Ku band
(11.7 to 12.7 GHz). The use of this band is impractical for less powerful
satellites. In large part, the Ku band assignment also reflected, in the
late 1970s, the capacity to mass-produce receivers for home consumers
in developed countries and the 'basic' communication needs of LDCs.
See Mark Williamson, 'Broadcasting by Satellite: Some Technical Con-
siderations', in Ralph Negrine (ed.), Satellite Broadcasting, (London:
Routledge, 1988) p. 38.