More governance over satellites' altitude and "spectrum certainty" were among an array of recommendations and asks of lawmakers in satellite executives' testimony Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee. There was some satellite criticism over how well prepared the FCC is to handle the wave of planned non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellations.
Increased orbital congestion is bringing with it more need for meaningful regulations on overlapping constellations, OneWeb Executive Chairman Greg Wyler said in testimony prepared for Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on satellites. Minimum altitude spacing of 125 kilometers for large-scale constellations could isolate the impact of debris from a collision, he says. The U.S. last significantly addressed space debris via regulation more than 20 years ago, and while other nations are looking at rules, the U.S. "can take a leadership position and drive standards ... worldwide," he says. The company backed updating re-entry rules that require re-entry casualties be highly unlikely, since those rules still could see large constellations dropping "tens of thousands of fragments." The company's first launch is scheduled for May, with plans to bring low-latency broadband to Alaska in 2019, followed by nationwide broadband the following year. It says its system's initial speeds will be 500 Mbps, with its subsequent constellation, scheduled for 2021, to increase that to 2.5 Gbps, and that by 2027 its goal is "fully bridging the global digital divide." Also due to testify are Intelsat, SpaceX and ViaSat executives (see 1710180056).
VidAngel is trying to buy time with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize around its new, streaming-centric business model (see 1710190046), but there's no consensus among copyright experts on whether that new business model will fare better in court because it's not clear how the streaming model operates. VidAngel General Counsel David Quinto told us the streaming service does result in some technical violations of exclusive rights, but it doesn't cause any actual harm to copyright owners and ultimately benefits consumers. "The fair use argument is very, very strong," he said.
Facing increased calls to respond to President Donald Trump's questioning whether NBC should continue to have a "license" in light of its alleged news bias (see 1710160011), Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday seemed to rebuff the presidential tweets (see 1710110075). "For years, I've said I believe in the First Amendment," Pai told a Mercatus Center at George Mason University event, saying legally, the FCC doesn't have the right to review a station license based on content. He said "fake news" issues haven't traditionally been in the agency's jurisdiction. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other Democratic senators told us the comments didn't completely satisfy their concerns.
The coming boom in connected IoT devices brings increased cybersecurity concerns, but no consensus about or current push for a regulatory framework to address it, said IoT, cybersecurity and connected medical device experts at an FCBA CLE Wednesday evening. "Hard and fast rules aren't going to work," said NTIA Deputy Associate Administrator Evelyn Remaley.
Video industry groups and others put forth proposals including adding "standstill" rules and eliminating network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity for video market rules changes as part of FCC preparation of its 19th annual video competition report. Tuesday was the deadline for docket 17-214 comments, with replies due Nov. 9 (see 1708250052). The Ajit Pai FCC is generally expected to avoid further video regulation (see 1703170017).
Opposition to AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner is increasingly becoming a conservative cause celebre, with a tide of filings to the FCC in recent days -- an agency not overseeing the deal (see 1701060057). Some say that's not unexpected, even if it's a new flavor for a major deal. Regardless, few see the comments stopping the deal cold.
The increasingly crowded -- and largely unregulated -- field of in-orbit satellite servicing is raising debate about how it should be overseen and by whom. Both the FCC and NOAA have some oversight of such operations -- the FCC due to spectrum use, NOAA for imaging, such as visual inspections of satellites -- and "the $64,000 question" Congress and the White House have struggled with in recent years is whether that's sufficient, said Secure World Foundation Program Planning Director Brian Weeden.
The federal National Space Council will put together a plan to present to the White House for a full review of the nation’s regulatory framework for commercial space operations, with the aim of streamlining and reducing regulatory burdens. That plan should be done in 45 days, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday at the reconstituted council’s first meeting. Representatives of SpaceX, Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada Corp., speaking before the council about needs of the commercial space industry, cited regulatory reform. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said a council commitment to streamlining launch regulations, which need updating due to new technologies and the increased cadence of launches, would help foster U.S. space innovation. Shotwell said "it requires heroics" to get changes made to FAA-issued launch licenses. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said traditional rockets fit into existing regulatory categories, but reusable rocket capabilities lead to a duplicative overlap between the FAA and the Air Force. Sierra Nevada CEO Fatih Ozmen backed the equivalent of a free trade zone aboard U.S.-flagged space vehicles or the International Space Station, and said the U.S. should commit to operating the ISS through at least the end of the 2020s because of its potential role as a stepping stone to deep space.
Spectrum harmonization might be a particularly big challenge at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19), said FCC International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan at an FCBA event Thursday. Countries in the past have converged on a particular spectrum segment for particular use, but the focus increasingly is on spectrum slivers for uses that don't always align across different geographies, he said.