Those entrepreneurs finalizing business plans in hopes of successfully entering the broadband market may want to pay close attention to the recent lesson PanAmSat Corp. [SPOT] learned when the FCC stripped the company of its two original orbital positions it was licensed to use.

The FCC’s decision sent a clear signal to licensees to keep their schedules for developing systems on track or risk losing the opportunity completely.

“The commission made exactly the right decision for exactly the right reasons. License holders that do not meet their milestones are supposed to lose their licenses–and everyone knows that is how the process works,” said Scott Harris, managing partner of Harris, Wiltshire and Grannis. “Moreover, it is critical for the entire satellite industry that the Commission strictly enforces its milestones.”

Along with industry veteran PanAmSat, EMS Technologies Inc. and Morning Star also lost their orbital slots. While PanAmSat may bounce back–still retaining the seven positions its acquired through its merger with Hughes Electronics Corp. [GMH]–the future is uncertain for EMS and Morning Star.

“We are shocked by the FCC’s actions,” said Alfred Hansen, EMS’s president and chief operating officer. “The commission has ignored the fact that the NetSAt satellite would have been one of the first Ka-band high-capacity satellites to go into commercial service, and that it was well ahead of most other licensees who, for various reasons, did not have formal construction milestones to meet.”

Some industry leaders, however, zero in on meeting milestones for business success if broadband companies plan on snagging a portion of the projected 28 million unit subscribers by 2010.

“The commission certainly needs to do a lot more house cleaning among non-performing licensees from the first round of Ka-band licenses,” said Tara Giunta, partner with Coudert Brothers law firm. “There are applicants among the second round who are eager to get on with the business of delivering broadband services from space. We hope that these license revocation orders are but the first in a series of commission decisions that will break the second round logjam.”