While a growing number of China's Thousand Sails satellites head to orbit, they and other Chinese low earth orbit (LEO) constellations are unlikely to obtain -- or even seek -- U.S. market access, satellite policy experts told us. Likewise, U.S. mega constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper are unlikely to obtain Chinese market access anytime soon. SpaceX and Amazon didn't comment.
While the White House increasingly wields tariffs as an economic policy tool, parts of the tech, media and telecom universe see a growing risk of getting enmeshed in trade fights. Some communications technology could be particularly exposed, Telecommunications Industry Association Director-Global Policy Patrick Lozada told us. Broadcasters, meanwhile, are bracing for tariffs that could potentially result in lower advertising spends. SpaceX's temporary loss of a $100 million contract over a U.S./Canada tariff fight also could point to satellite communications getting caught in the thicket of U.S. trade disputes (see 2502060004).
The FAA might not be a good home for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), and maybe it should move elsewhere, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Also speaking Wednesday at the FAA and Commercial Space Federation's annual commercial space conference in Washington, House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mike Haridopolos urged aggressive use of low earth orbit (LEO) broadband in BEAD, saying it would be a vastly cheaper approach.
A legal challenge to the FCC's over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules might face procedural problems, a federal judge said Tuesday. But the three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also seemed skeptical during oral argument (docket 24-1108) of the commission's creating a "human presence" requirement in its OTARD rules for Indian Peak Properties. The company is appealing an FCC order that denied its petitions for declaratory ruling. Indian Peak was seeking a federal preemption under the OTARD rule of a Rancho Palos Verdes, California, decision to revoke its local permit for the deployment of rooftop antennas on a property (see 2405060035).
Expect big changes to BEAD, with the Donald Trump administration and congressional Republicans rewriting the rules and putting more emphasis on efficient use of funding, tech policy experts said Tuesday at the annual State of the Net conference. Consultant Mike O'Rielly, a former FCC commissioner, said NTIA isn't likely to process any state's final proposals in the near term as it awaits where the administration and Congress take BEAD. States must be flexible and ready to pivot once that new direction becomes clear, he added.
SpaceX's temporary loss of a $100 million contract with Ontario over a U.S./Canada tariff fight could be a harbinger of satellite communications services increasingly enmeshed in U.S. trade disputes. Some see non-U.S. satellite operators potentially benefiting from the Starlink contract episode.
AST SpaceMobile's L-band spectrum access agreement with Ligado comes as the booming interest in direct-to-device service is running into limited spectrum availability, spectrum consultants and analysts tell us. Some see a similar deal with a satellite operator getting access to EchoStar's 2 GHz band spectrum for D2D as possible. The federal bankruptcy court overseeing Ligado's Chapter 11 plan signed off last week on the financial breakup terms of the Ligado/AST deal (see 2501270026). Ligado has said the AST deal is key to it emerging from bankruptcy (see 2501060026).
Charter Communications sees broadband subscriber competition from fixed wireless access (FWA) having peaked and predicts that fiber overbuilding will slow down. In a call with analysts Friday as Charter reported its Q4 2024 results, CEO Chris Winfrey said the broadband environment is "still competitive in terms of fiber and cellphone internet overlap." But, he said, "we better be better this year than we were ... last year" -- especially with the loss of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) no longer dragging down results, as it did in the second half of 2024. Charter executives used the term "cellphone internet" five times in Friday's call.
Comcast "will lean into wireless more than ever,” President Mike Cavanagh said in a call with analysts as the company announced Q4 results Thursday, which included worse-than-expected broadband subscriber losses. In December, Comcast predicted losses just north of 100,000 during the quarter (see 2412090029); they came in at 139,000. “Competitive conditions remain intense, dynamic and varied across our footprint and customer segments, and we see no signs of this changing in the near term," Cavanagh said. Comcast closed at $33.25, down $4.11, Charter at $336.62, down $22.71, with the latter to announce Q4 results Friday.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) isn't likely to make much headway with the 119th Congress absent a major revamp, tech policy panelists said Wednesday at a Congressional Internet Caucus event, which also featured some panelists disagreeing on the FCC's role in cybersecurity enforcement.