SpaceX Renews Efforts for 1.6/2.4 GHz Access

In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Thursday, SpaceX asked for approval for its second-generation satellites to operate in co-primary mobile satellite service (MSS) allocations in the 1525-1559, 1626.5-1660.5, 1610-1617.775 and 2483.5-2500 MHz bands in the U.S. The application comes 15 months after the bureau rejected a 2023 SpaceX request to operate in the 1.6/2.4 GHz bands (see 2403270002). The agency said then that the bands weren't available for additional MSS operations.

In its application this week, SpaceX said the previous decision "appears to have been made in error," given that the agency continues to evaluate other requests for new systems in the bands. It said the parts of 1.6/2.4 GHz where it seeks authority are "particularly ripe for sharing" since incumbent operator Globalstar is using only 0.3% of the spectrum. Globalstar's use of code division multiple access technology expressly permits co-frequency sharing between multiple operators, SpaceX noted.

The 1.6/2.4 GHz bands, as well as the 1.5/1.6 GHz bands, "have been left virtually fallow in the hands of legacy foreign licensees whose end-of-life systems use only a small sliver of available capacity," SpaceX said. Allowing more operators to share the MSS spectrum "will clearly signal [FCC] intent to lead in emerging direct-to-device satellite services, including robust and resilient positioning, navigation, and timing solutions; emergency connectivity; the Internet of Things; and future 6G services."

SpaceX's application also said Ligado was "warehousing" its 1.5/1.6 GHz spectrum and seeking to extend that warehousing by leasing it "for an astonishing 80 years ... to a system with no credible plans to intensively use the spectrum." SpaceX didn't name AST SpaceMobile, but Ligado's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization involves leasing L-band spectrum to AST (see 2501060026). The application also criticized EchoStar, calling it a speculator with "a troubling habit of making fantastical claims that lack technical support."

"Like its previously dismissed application to operate in the United States [using Globalstar-licensed spectrum], SpaceX continues to be wrong on a myriad of legal and factual issues," Globalstar Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Barbee Ponder emailed. "This application provides nothing new and appears primarily intended to disrupt a competitor’s own direct-to-device efforts. The Commission should continue to dismiss SpaceX’s anti-competitive actions."

Already pending before the FCC is another SpaceX request to use parts of the 2 GHz band in its second-generation satellites (see 2505150002). In that application, SpaceX argued -- as it has with the 1.6/2.4 GHz band and Globalstar -- that incumbent user EchoStar is using a fraction of its 2 GHz holdings.

Satellite and spectrum consultant Tim Farrar emailed that the description of AST "is quite something." The FCC will likely hold off on the request, "at least for now." SpaceX seems to be submitting it primarily as a way of signaling to Viasat, Globalstar, Apple and others that they shouldn’t intervene in the EchoStar 2 GHz spectrum fight, "or SpaceX will attack their spectrum bands as well," he said.

It's essentially the same request SpaceX made in 2023, Summit Ridge Group President Armand Musey told us in an email. "With millions of new Globalstar-enabled iPhones being sold every month, the argument that Globalstar is not efficiently using its limited spectrum is curious," he said. "Globalstar and Apple have expanded emergency communications to almost all of the world without any cost to taxpayers and are in the process of enhancing the service to include non-emergency services -- I can't imagine the FCC would want to risk disrupting that success."

Making more MSS spectrum available in the 2-4 GHz range unquestionably "would promote innovation and benefit consumers," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. Rather than granting the modification, the agency should open a rulemaking to determine whether technology advances will sustain multiple operators sharing MSS bands, he said in an email. It's unclear if operators can coexist in low-band MSS spectrum, he added.

Calabrese also said SpaceX's request to share an MSS band used only for satellite services is "entirely different from the company’s ill-advised push to share EchoStar’s MSS spectrum at 2 GHz, since that band is heavily deployed for terrestrial 5G mobile that can almost certainly not coexist with other satellite operators." Meanwhile, there's no authorized or extensive 5G terrestrial buildout in 1.6/2.4 GHz that would suffer harmful interference, he said.