Dish Predicts ESIM Problems; SpaceX Says It's Confused

Dish Network and SpaceX clashed over Starlink subscribers using their earth stations in motion. Dish told the FCC International Bureau this week SpaceX hasn't retracted statements encouraging ESIM transmissions, and a growing number of Starllink users are using their terminals in motion. Such use is outside the company's FCC authorization, it said. It said tweets by CEO Elon Musk about the limited mobile capabilities now and fully mobile earth stations coming later this year are proclamations "from the mountaintops of social media, as if the regulated entity wanted to force the agency’s hand by creating a fait accompli on the ground." At least one of Musk's tweets was about Starlink service being provided in Ukraine, and "highlight[s] the lengths to which DISH will go so long as the Commission inexplicably leaves the 12 GHz proceeding open," SpaceX said Wednesday. It said Dish's "muddled and confusing" arguments seem to allege SpaceX is encouraging people to use Starlink terminals in motion, though Dish "is forced to admit -- no one from SpaceX encouraged anyone to use their terminal in such a fashion and that use is expressly prohibited in SpaceX’s Terms of Service."