SES is the only upper C-band incumbent committing capital to clear
As the brief logged it
In the 07-27T2011Z piece, a Eutelsat spokesperson said it "was still assessing the need to order satellites to meet the clearing obligations" and Telesat "had yet to determine whether any new satellites would be needed," while SES is "actively negotiating contracts for the satellites and launches" against a ~$2.62bn satellite line item. The precedent runs the same way: in the 2020 clearing round SES and Intelsat ordered 13 spacecraft between them, Eutelsat announced a replacement satellite and then concluded idle capacity sufficed, and Telesat ordered nothing. If that repeats, SES carries essentially all of the industry's clearing capex against 89% of the incentive pool — a proportionate split on paper, but one that converts SES's incentive into a GEO capex cycle while its competitors take theirs as cash, at exactly the point in the timeline where meoSphere capex ramps. The same article puts the FCC's own auction-proceeds estimate at $40.8bn–$69.6bn, a figure the desk did not hold.
Provenance
Logged in the brief of 28 July 2026.
Raw brief ↗ (repository access)