US satellite operator ICO’s furious reaction to Ofcom’s decision to advise the ITU to cancel its S-Band assignments (see here) has resulted in the UK regulator backing off – if only for the moment.

Yesterday, Ofcom posted a note on its site saying that ICO had followed up with a letter to the regulator referring to its right to seek a judicial review of the decision.

“In light of this Ofcom considers that it is appropriate for it to refrain from writing to the ITU before the time period for ICO to apply for a judicial review expires, which is 23 May 2009,” its statement ran.

However, the damage to ICO’s EU S-Band bid may already have been done – if the EU was taking ICO’s bid seriously in the first place. There is widespread industry speculation that the EU is poised to announce that the pan-European S-Band award will go jointly to Solaris Mobile and Inmarsat.