SpaceX wants the conditions the FCC put on its second-generation constellation to be required of other satellite applications pending before the agency. In a series of near-identical filings with the International Bureau Tuesday, SpaceX said those conditions should be required of Amazon's Kuiper, Tomorrow Company's earth exploration satellite service constellation and Kepler's requested U.S. market access for its mobile satellite service. The conditions SpaceX seeks include the other operators having to file semi-annual reports on collision avoidance maneuvers and satellite disposal, including any difficulties or failures, and the agency employing with those operators a performance-based method for assessing disposal failures that accounts for the number of failed satellites and their entire passive decay time. SpaceX also urged the FCC to require the operators to coordinate with the National Science Foundation to reach agreement about mitigating their satellites' impact on optical ground-based astronomy and that there be related annual reporting requirements. SpaceX said questions remain about FCC authority regarding space sustainability, but the agency's rules, to be effective, "must apply ... equally to similarly situated operators, and not through a patchwork of conflicting licensing conditions." Adopting those conditions for the others would create "a meaningful and broadly applicable baseline for sustainable operations in space." The FCC, Kuiper, Tomorrow and Kepler didn't comment Wednesday. "The strategy seems more likely to be to hobble competitors, by increasing their perceived regulatory risk, especially in a challenging economic environment where those competitors either need to raise money, or (in the case of Kuiper) convince senior executives to continue pouring billions of dollars into the project," satellite and spectrum consultant Tim Farrar emailed. He said those operators aren't likely to advocate for the conditions to be removed from SpaceX. "In reality SpaceX doesn’t need them to be removed anytime soon, it will take several years (at a minimum) to get 12,000 Gen1 and Gen2 Starlink satellites on orbit," he said.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants improved ability to route calls and texts made to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to local call centers (see 2207150036), but mental health and emergency management stakeholders say more enhanced capabilities to know exactly where calls are being placed from could be complicated by a sizable policy split in the mental health community on privacy.
A new FCC approach on how it calculates satellite constellation collision risks, used in its partial approval of SpaceX's second-generation constellation, is raising some space expert concerns, especially since it's seen as a possible harbinger of how the FCC might look at collision risk for future constellations. Viasat petitioned the commission to clarify aspects of that SpaceX authorization granted in November (see 2212010052). The agency and SpaceX didn't comment.
State broadband offices are facing increasing challenges in hiring and retaining staff, particularly directors. State broadband officials and experts told us competition for talent is heavy.
The FCC's partial grant of SpaceX's second-generation constellation application last month (see 2212010052) is an abuse of agency discretion under the Administrative Procedure Act and a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, nonprofit International Dark-Sky Association told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a notice of appeal last week (docket 22-1337). The FCC didn't comment Tuesday.
Globalstar and Iridium shouldn't face notable regulatory hurdles or opposition to their direct-to-handset services, we were told. Iridium said last week it had inked a smartphone service provider agreement. In an SEC filing, it said the deal could mean revenue in the form of development fees, royalties and network usage fees. Apple debuted its Globalstar-enabled SOS emergency messaging service on iPhone 14s in November (see 2211100005).
M&A activity in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector is down from the more heated pace during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic but could pick up in 2023, TMT M&A experts told us. However, expect fewer big, transformative deals and more a series of bolt-on deals, they said.
The FCC, having opened the 17 GHz band to geostationary orbit fixed satellite service, is facing some divides among satellite and wireless operators about doing the same for non-geostationary orbit FSS operations, per docket 22-273 comments this week. The commissioners adopted a 17 GHz GSO order in August on circulation that included an NPRM about an NGSO FSS downlink allocation in the 17.3-17.8 GHz band (see 2208040055).
The FCC's 2-2 deadlock, Commissioner Brendan Carr's dance moves and the agency's expiring spectrum auction authorization caught darts from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in her address Thursday night at the FCBA annual dinner. A crowd of close to 1,500 attended the event at the Marriott Marquis in Washington -- the first such in-person "telecom prom" since 2019. Being the first woman to deliver the chair's traditional monologue, Rosenworcel quipped she "will receive only 83% as much laughter." She made multiple jokes about the 2-2 commission, likening it to a World Cup score and, pointing to next congressional session's Senate, said "getting a one-vote majority sounds pretty good to me." With the FCC's spectrum auction authorization expiring, she said she would have some 4.9 GHz band spectrum available directly after her speech. Showing a video clip of Carr doing "the floss" dance move, Rosenworcel joked there are "ulterior reasons Brendan doesn't want people looking at TikTok." She also took jabs at such targets as Amazon, the AT&T/Time Warner combination, local news broadcasts and Communications Daily's new sister publication, Communication Litigation Today.
Notable changes in how the FCC handles satellite license applications seem likely due to efforts within the agency and congressional pressure on it, but timing is up in the air, space regulatory practitioners said. The Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act introduced earlier this month (see 2212090064) isn't going anywhere in the remaining lame-duck session of Congress but stands good chances of being reintroduced and making progress in the next, we were told. Introducing it now was "a stake in the ground," and now staff can get feedback that could lead to amendments to it in the next session, said Hogan Lovells space lawyer George John.