Peter Pitsch to lead advocacy and government affairs for C-Band Alliance

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) has announced the appointment of Peter Pitsch as Head of Advocacy and Government Affairs. The CBA proposes to implement a safe and efficient clearing and repurposing of mid-band ‘C-band’ downlink spectrum to accelerate the deployment of 5G services in the US. The CBA was formed by Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat, the band’s incumbents and the leading continental US satellite services operators.

Pitsch previously served as Associate General Counsel for Intel Corporation, where he was responsible for global telecommunications policy, a position from which he retired in 2018. Since October 2017, Pitsch advocated in support of the CBA’s market-based proposal on behalf of Intel. Pitsch has over three decades of experience advocating for public policy issues in front of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and US Congress. Positions of note prior to his career at Intel included serving as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC during the Reagan Administration.

Speaking about the appointment, Bill Tolpegin, C-Band Alliance Chief Executive Officer said: “The appointment of Peter Pitsch, who is already well-versed in this complex proceeding at the FCC, allows the CBA to further amplify its advocacy efforts at the FCC and on Capitol Hill as we explain how our proposal best balances the needs of C-band incumbents with the need for speed when it comes to supplying spectrum for 5G in the United States. Given his long experience with telecom policy and intimate knowledge of our proposal and the FCC proceeding, we are confident Peter will be a valuable leader in our efforts to build consensus on our proposal.”

The CBA is advocating a breakthrough, market-based proposal to the FCC to allow satellite operators to clear frequencies to enable terrestrial mobile operators to access 200 MHz of C-band spectrum. The CBA approach and detailed transition plan would accelerate the deployment of next generation 5G services in the US while also protecting the wide array of established C-band satellite services and the US consumers that rely on them, such as the US television and radio broadcasters and programmers.