SpaceX is lobbying the FCC to block iPhone satellite provider Globalstar from launching a new constellation of 48 low-Earth orbiting satellites.
Globalstar’s “C3” constellation promises to expand the satellite-powered features on future iPhones, funded in part by a $1 billion investment from Apple. However, SpaceX claims the FCC needs to dismiss the application because the C3 constellation will use radio spectrum in the 1.6GHz and 2.4GHz bands.
Those radio bands are facing scrutiny at the FCC, which is considering opening up the spectrum to all satellite players, following a request from SpaceX. As a result, the company is calling out Globalstar’s application as “premature,” and urging the FCC to first open up the radio bands for sharing among mobile satellite services.
“Doing so would be the fairest and most expeditious route to determine the appropriate regulatory regime to govern operations in a band that has not been examined in nearly 20 years,” SpaceX said in a letter to the FCC.
Globalstar didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the letter is the latest salvo in a brewing regulatory battle between the company and SpaceX for control of the 1.6GHz and 2.4GHz bands. Globalstar and Iridium were originally given exclusive access to the spectrum. But SpaceX has been lobbying for shared access so that it can bolster its own cellular Starlink system, which is currently relying on T-Mobile spectrum in the 1.9GHz bands for the US market.
Globalstar, on the other hand, claims that opening up the 1.6GHz and 2.4GHz bands to other companies risks generating interference with its own satellite systems, potentially degrading the satellite connectivity for iPhones. “There is no public interest justification for undermining the spectrum environment upon which Globalstar has relied,” the company’s lawyers told the FCC while meeting with new Chairman Brendan Carr.
But in Thursday’s letter to the FCC, SpaceX told the commission that opening up the radio bands to sharing “would ensure the most consistent treatment, efficient sharing, and robust competition between Globalstar and other next-generation satellite systems—including SpaceX—who have sought to finally make productive use of this long-fallow spectrum.”
In addition, SpaceX noted that a previous FCC ruling from a year ago said “the commission is currently not accepting applications for new MSS entrants in the 1.6/2.4 GHz and 2 GHz bands.” Hence, the Commission should deny Globalstar’s application.
Still, it’s possible the FCC meant it wasn’t accepting applications from new companies outside of Globalstar and Iridium. Nevertheless, SpaceX says its own petition to revise the 1.6/2.4GHz rules was filed before Globalstar’s application for the C3 constellation.
“Accepting Globalstar’s application for its new, higher-power system in the band would also fundamentally alter the spectrum environment in the 1.6/2.4 GHz band to the detriment of prospective competitors, such as SpaceX, whose applications predated Globalstar’s application and who have expressed an interest in efficiently sharing the band alongside other operators,” SpaceX added.
This comes as the FCC today SpaceX a waiver for “aggregate out-of-band emissions” in the US, which permits SpaceX to operate its cellular Starlink system beyond the normal radio limits, subject to certain conditions. Yahoo