SES, Amazon Talk SpaceX Mod With FCC; Dish Argues Beam Pledge

SES/O3b and Amazon lobbied the FCC eighth floor in recent days about SpaceX's pending license modification and putting it in the 2020 processing round. SES/O3b CEO Steve Collar told Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington the modification "significantly changes the interference environment" for SES' O3b non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) network, per an International Bureau filing Tuesday. Amazon's Kuiper told acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that SpaceX's proposed license modification has Amazon's support as long as it's authorized in the March 2020 NGSO processing round and conditioned on capping orbital altitude at less than 580 kilometers. SpaceX didn't comment Wednesday. SES, calls with commissioners, also argued that the pending Further NPRM on out-of-band emissions from NGSO earth-station-in-motion operations in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band is flawed and that OOBE limits in place now for geostationary ESIMs and fixed GSO and NGSO blanket-licensed terminals should also apply to NGSO ESIM terminals. Dish Network and SpaceX are at odds over whether SpaceX will use more than one satellite beam in the same area using the same frequency. Dish, in a docket 20-443 filing Wednesday, said SpaceX "falls far short of a commitment" when the company tells the FCC it has in fact answered the question, and previous "hedged pronouncements are not accidents of draftsmanship." It said SpaceX talked about 10 Gbps speeds, and saying it will use only one beam at a time "is simply not credible or realistic," because that speed might require multiple beams for even one user. SpaceX said that Dish "is once again determined to create an issue where none exists," that it has been clear on its satellite beam commitment, and that Dish's own consultant verified that SpaceX's system, when modified, would comply with equivalent power flux density limits.