Spectrum and Cross-border Clarity Are Supplemental Space Coverage Musts: FCBA Speakers
Supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service is in dire need of additional spectrum, AT&T Assistant Vice President-Public Policy Navid Motamed said Monday during an FCBA CLE. Regulatory and company speakers also noted that SCS issues of cross-border interference and coordination need to be settled. While some nations are crafting SCS rules frameworks, others are in a wait-and-see stance.
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Skylo global regulatory head Mindel De La Torre said disasters have driven sizable traffic on Skylo's direct-to-device service. She added Skylo is providing satellite SOS messaging and SMS texting on Android Pixel 9 phones. Demand is strong during emergencies, such as the California wildfires and last year's hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina. Skylo has seen a 90%-100% increase in traffic in the area over California. During the hurricanes, usage above Florida and North Carolina tripled, she added.
The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology had been approving experimental licenses for satellite-to-device texting since the mid 2010s, said satellite and spectrum lawyer Barlow Keener of Womble Bond. But it was Globalstar's partnership with Apple for emergency SOS messaging on iPhones, announced in 2022 (see 2209070016), and SpaceX's partnering with T-Mobile, that got the ball rolling on the FCC establishing an SCS framework, which it adopted in March (see 2403140050), he said.
However, the order doesn't make enough spectrum eligible to meet SCS needs, Motamed said. It's hard to find mobile spectrum not already deployed, and a focus needs to be on making mobile spectrum more viable for SCS, he said. Motamed said one approach could be adopting a presumption that coexistence is a requirement. He said international harmonization will be difficult and instead there perhaps should be a focus on regional harmonization.
Multiple speakers also pointed to the challenge of different nations having various spectrum allocations and assignments. Fernanda Sanchez, director-spectrum allocation at Mexico's IFT, said there's a need for bilateral agreements among nations on reducing interference. She said that while the U.S. and Mexico have an agreement covering the 800 MHz band, which was included in the FCC's SCS framework, there's no agreement governing the 700 MHz band, also in the framework.
Canada is in the midst of establishing a domestic SCS framework, which it's calling supplemental mobile coverage by satellite, said Cole Grayston, senior spectrum engineer at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The country's approach would involve satellites using commercial mobile spectrum rather than employing mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum, he said. Canada's proposal would use most but not all the same frequency bands that are in the FCC's order, he said. Canada is also proposing a secondary MSS allocation for bidirectional services, and smaller licensing areas than the U.S., he said. And Canada is proposing license conditions that make clear SCS service doesn't count toward terrestrial operators' deployment obligations.
Sanchez said Mexico anticipates granting some experimental licenses that would give it insight into how SCS would work in Mexico. She said the 600 MHz band seems like a likely home for SCS operations, as there are no incumbent operations.
Brazil sees SCS as its best hope for providing universal wireless coverage to the country, said Rodrigo Cruz Gebrim, Anatel manager-spectrum, orbit and broadcasting. But while there's interest in the technology, operators have concerns about cross-border interference issues and economics, he said. There's hope that developments from the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference can grease the path.
Eric Fournier, director-spectrum planning and international affairs for France's ANFR, said Europe's good mobile coverage makes the business case not as strong there as other parts of the world, but there remains business interest nonetheless. He said there are discussions of conditional approvals of SCS service before WRC-27.
Canada's Grayston said it could be a challenge to get consensus around WRC-27 agenda item 1.13 regarding SCS service because many different countries have varying levels of interest in SCS. Some nations are already seeing limited commercial SCS deployments, but under ITU rules that have them operating on essentially a no-protection, no-interference basis, Grayston said. That points to the need for consensus on global regulatory framework, he said.