Make SpaceX Prove Its Test Plan Won't Interfere With FSS Incumbents, Intelsat Says

The FCC should require SpaceX to prove it can meet the experimental radio service non-interference criteria, because the company's latest submission on its planned microsatellite test "does little to address (concerns) about co-frequency interference," Intelsat said in an Office of Engineering and Technology filing posted Wednesday. SpaceX and Intelsat have spent months debating SpaceX plans for a satellite test in advance of a low earth orbit constellation (see 1510080038). While the submission clears up worries about collision avoidance, Intelsat said, the question remains whether SpaceX "can reasonably be expected to operate on a non-interference basis with respect to co-frequency (geosynchronous) operations." SpaceX hasn't addressed Intelsat calculations that its space-to-earth transmissions could increase the earth station receiver noise floor by almost 24 percent, and the data it submitted on transmit antenna radiation patterns "are near irrelevant" to assessing that interference, Intelsat said. Incumbent fixed satellite service (FSS) operators could use that data to run interference simulations, but "each incumbent FSS operator should not have to spend considerable time and resources determining the risk of interference posed by an experimental license application," it said.