After Declines, Satellite Jamming on the Rebound
Deliberate jamming of satellite signals, on the wane in recent years, is picking up again, industry experts said Thursday at the American Bar Association’s annual space law symposium. Eutelsat America General Counsel Stefan Lopatkiewicz said jamming became a material issue in 2010 and peaked in 2013, and that after several years of declines there has been a spike in activity again from Iran, alongside the more sporadic and minor interference from Ethiopia and Sudan. It's not yet as materially significant as it was, he said.
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Instead of traditional jamming of uplink signals, some nations are using equipment to jam downlinks, said Andre Mendes, Broadcasting Board of Governors chief information officer/chief technology officer. He said more-recent jamming often was around events such as elections and that jamming spikes in Iran came just before national elections there in May. The Middle East and North Africa "is really the hot spot ," Lopatkiewicz said.
Mendes said the intentional interference started to wane after industry efforts of "naming and shaming" bad actors, but most effective was when satellite operators began not carrying signals from offending regimes in response. Lopatkiewicz said Eutelsat brought 65 intentional interference complaints to the ITU 2011-15, but the ITU is most effective "as a bully pulpit" due to its bureaucracy and limited enforcement authority.
While the number of small-satellite constellations mushrooms, the geostationary satellite operator battle over spectrum is less with them and more with terrestrial wireless operators, Lopatkiewicz said. He said the regulatory playing field in the U.S. is seemingly tilted in their favor because the FCC in recent years “has not been friendly toward the satellite industry.” Intelsat Associate General Counsel Gonzalo de Dios said the industry is facing a challenge from that proliferation of smallsat newcomers not always knowing the rules for spectrum use and in educating them that "it's not a free for all."
That smallsat proliferation "is a huge issue for us," said Glenn Tallia, section chief-weather, satellites and research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said the agency rejected some remote sensing constellation applications that posed a possible risk to the International Space Station, and those worries will only increase given the relatively cheap cost of building an earth observation satellite.
The booming interest in commercial nontraditional space missions like satellite servicing also is straining the existing regulatory framework, such as the Outer Space Treaty, said Mike Gold, vice president-D.C. operations, Space Systems Loral. While congressional hearings have been held on revisiting aspects of that 1967 treaty (see 1705230038), re-opening it also opens the door to far more restrictive language, Gold said, saying the U.S. instead should urge allies to develop understandings within the treaty framework.
Nations and regions are trying to build up outer space sectors. Commercial space hasn't been as big a priority in Europe, with European billionaires spending "their money elsewhere,” said Micheline Tabache, head of the European Space Agency’s Washington office. ESA is trying to foster a bigger space private sector in part through incubators and a telco commercialization program. Startup activities prompted Japan last year to pass laws covering commercial launch and remote sensing activities that had been solely the government purview, now with the regulatory regimes being set up, said space lawyer Atsushi Mizushima of Nishimura & Asahi. Kim Ellis, director of International Earth & Space Technology, said Australia is reviewing its space regulatory regime, which is broadly seen as not supporting commercial activity.