Globalstar's unwillingness to share the 1.6 and 2.4 GHz bands (see 2209150048) goes against the FCC's fundamental spectrum allocation goal of a competitive market with multiple co-frequency operators sharing, SpaceX told the International Bureau Friday. SpaceX said it's "ready, able and willing to coordinate" with other mobile satellite systems, but "Globalstar appears entirely unwilling to even try." Globalstar was never granted exclusivity in the bands, SpaceX said. Globalstar's iPhone connectivity partnership with Apple (see 2209080001) seems to point to it having network capacity available for sharing, the filing said. Globalstar didn't comment.
SpaceX's Starlink might try to provide unfettered internet access in Iran under the General License D-2 issued Friday by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, company CEO Elon Musk indicated. The updated U.S. sanctions guidance opens the door to technology companies offering Iranians more options for secure, private, outside platforms and services in response to the Iranian regime's violent crackdown of protests there, per the State Department. "Activating Starlink ...," Musk tweeted in response. In a media briefing, a Treasury official said Starlink's commercial-grade service and Starlink hardware wouldn't be covered in the general license, and would need agency approval, but it "welcomes and we will prioritize applications for specific licenses to authorize activities supporting internet freedom in Iran."
Opposition by Natural Resources Defense Council and the International Dark-Sky Association (NRDC/IDA) to SpaceX's proposed second-generation constellation comes months after the pleading cycle's close and uses arguments the FCC already rejected or that have been previously addressed, the company told the International Bureau in a filing Wednesday. They ignore that the National Environmental Policy Act doesn't apply to space and "seek to goad the Commission into exceeding" its NEPA authority, SpaceX said. They also ignore SpaceX's efforts to mitigate the reflectivity of its Starlink satellites, it said. NEPA doesn't stop the FCC from authorizing commercial satellite communications, but it does make the agency look at the environmental impacts, NRDC/IDA said earlier this month in the opposition: "So far, it has not." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that the agency didn't violate NEPA in a SpaceX license modification (see 2208260035) didn't address the merits of the NEPA claims raised, and relying on a categorical exclusion to allow the second-gen constellation "is unlawful," the groups said.
SpaceX's Starlink app is on pace to be downloaded more than 2 million times this year, averaging between 3,000 and 5,000 a day, 42matters blogged this week.
SpaceX's effort to use the 2 GHz band to add mobile satellite service (MSS) capabilities to its first-generation constellation (see 2207260005) "is a lawless, pirate application," Dish Network told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. Band licensee Dish said it has been using the band to deploy its 5G network. It said the request seeks to provide MSS when SpaceX's Starlink is authorized to provide only fixed satellite service, and it would violate the agency's rules for the band. SpaceX didn't comment.
Amazon's Kuiper and Telesat wrapped up coordination agreements for their low earth orbit fixed satellite service systems, Amazon told the FCC International Bureau Wednesday. It said they also reached coordination agreements for operation of Telesat's geostationary orbit system, and thus was withdrawing its comments on Telesat's proposed modification of its system. In its comments last month, Amazon urged the bureau to treat the larger first-phase deployment as part of the 2020 processing round and that any grant be conditioned on Telesat getting satisfactory equivalent power flux density findings from the ITU.
As part of Eutelsat's proposed acquisition of OneWeb (see 2207250041), the companies seek FCC OK to transfer control of earth station and experimental licenses held by OneWeb, per an International Bureau submission Wednesday. Eutelsat also notified the FCC about a change in control of its foreign-licensed Eutelsat and its Satelites Mexicanos satellites that have U.S. market access.
PlanetiQ hopes to launch as soon as October 2023 its low earth orbit Gnomes-4 satellite for radio occultation services to be used for weather forecasting and analysis, it said in an FCC International Bureau application filed Wednesday. The Colorado company said it later plans a Gnomes constellation of global navigation satellite system navigation and occultation measurement satellites.
Dish Network urged the FCC to reject DirecTV's analysis of the viability of 5G/satellite sharing of the 12 GHz band (see 2208020049) in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-443. “DIRECTV effectively admits that its contested claims of ‘close to 100%’ interference potential do not apply to the entire country,” Dish said: “Even if the assumptions made by DIRECTV were all correct (which they are not), the nationwide percentage of dishes threatened with interference would be a lower number because the number of DIRECTV dishes is a small fraction of the dishes that DIRECTV has assumed in the vicinity of a macro-cell tower.”
Capellla Space wants to add a satellite to its Earth Exploration Satellite Service license. In an FCC International Bureau application Monday, Capella asked to modify the orbital characteristics of its Capella-9 satellite and to add Capella-10, which would operate with identical technical parameters and in the same orbital plane. Capella said it has launched seven of the eight satellites the FCC authorized, and Capella-10 would be its ninth, to be launched simultaneously with Capella-9.