Arguments that low earth orbit broadband can't meet BEAD capacity requirements and that LEO lacks scalability are incorrect, Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy, wrote this week on the group's website. Kane said LEO service can exceed 100 Mbps downloads, which is more than adequate for consumer use. While LEO upload speeds fall short of 20 Mbps in some areas, wireline upload speeds in those same areas "are precisely zero; the alternative fiber networks don’t exist," he said. Kane said LEO networks are scalable as they launch new satellites and account for the cost to replace them over time. Any BEAD fund awards come with enforceable obligations to meet performance standards, he said. Criticisms that LEO broadband is more expensive wrongly compare urban wireline rates to rural Starlink rates, as consumer prices will always be lower in more densely populated areas, according to Kane. He said absent USF funding, rural wireline broadband would be more expensive than SpaceX's Starlink service.
By opposing Globalstar's planned C-3 satellite system, SpaceX and Kepler are trying to disadvantage a competitor and get access to its 1.6/2.4 GHz spectrum, Globalstar told the FCC Space Bureau in a filing posted Wednesday. Globalstar said an accompanying Roberson and Associates study shows the bands can't support more than one mobile satellite service (MSS) operator. "Physics dictates that the operation of SpaceX’s mega-constellation or any other new entrant’s system in the 1.6/2.4 GHz band would inevitably cause extensive harmful interference to Globalstar’s licensed services," it said. That C-3 uses technology different from Globalstar's existing constellation isn't evidence other entities could provide service in the band without harming Globalstar. The satellite operator waved off claims the spectrum is underused, saying it "robustly uses its few megahertz of spectrum for a variety of mobile satellite offerings with considerable public interest benefits," including satellite IoT, its "SPOT family" of satellite-enabled communications devices and Apple's direct-to-device service for the iPhone 14, 15 and 16. Globalstar urged approval of its U.S. market access request for C-3 (see 2502280001).
While HughesNet's latency has been decreasing in recent years and is now essentially tied with Viasat, neither geostationary orbit (GSO) operator comes close to competing with SpaceX on latency, Ookla said Tuesday. It said their download speeds are increasing but also remain well below Starlink's. Citing its Speedtest data, Ookla said HughesNet more than doubled its median download speeds from 20.87 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 47.79 Mbps in Q1 2025, while Viasat went from 25.18 Mbps to 49.12 Mbps. However, U.S. Speedtest users on SpaceX's Starlink network saw their median download speeds nearly double from 53.95 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 104.71 Mbps in Q1 2025, according to Ookla. It said the GSO operators also struggle to compete with Starlink in upload speeds. HughesNet's median upload speed grew from 2.87 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 4.44 Mbps in Q1 2025 -- still far lower than Starlink's median upload speed of 14.84 Mbps in Q1 2025. It said Viasat's median upload speed has been declining, from 3.06 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 1.08 Mbps in Q1 2025.
Orbital debris removal startup Kall Morris said Tuesday it had completed the first commercial demonstration of capturing unprepared objects in space. It said its robotic tentacle system was launched in November on a SpaceX mission to the International Space Station, where it was used in six separate test sessions. Those tests showed "objects in space don’t necessarily need a docking adapter or other specialized hardware to receive services from a 'tow-truck in space' and get objects to where customers want them," said Kall Morris CEO Troy Morris.
An amateur radio operator in Germany is petitioning the FCC to deny AST SpaceMobile's request to conduct telemetry, tracking and control operations in 430-440 MHz. In a petition posted Tuesday (docket 25-201), Mario Lorenz said the band is allocated in Europe to amateur radio on a co-primary basis and heavily used. Under ITU rules, the FCC would have to find that AST’s proposed use is incapable of causing harmful interference to international radio service, including amateur radio, but the record doesn't support that finding, said Lorenz.
Commercial space launch company Firefly Aerospace said Friday that it's planning an initial public offering. Its registration filed with the SEC doesn't provide an expected date. Firefly said at the end of March it had a launch backlog worth $1.1 billion.
The FCC Space and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology signed off Friday on license transfers needed as part of SES' $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat. It put no special conditions on the transaction. SES/Intelsat is likely to result in lower costs from synergies, better network quality, increased investment, national security benefits "and the creation of a more vigorous satellite competitor," the bureaus said in a 35-page order.
Pointing to the various challenges facing the development of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) technology, the Government Accountability Office last week laid out a set of policy options. GAO said a chief ISAM technology development hurdle is the "chicken-and-egg problem" -- ISAM providers are hesitant to develop technologies before there's a user base, while potential users are hesitant to create satellites that could be serviced in orbit until in-orbit servicing is commercially available. Adding to the problem is the fact that government and private satellite operators generally don't require their satellites to be designed for future servicing, such as refueling, GAO said, and there are few in-space opportunities for testing of ISAM technology.
Approval of SES' buying Intelsat should be conditioned on the new combined company complying with a variety of national security directives, NTIA petitioned the FCC on Monday (docket 24-267). The petition was on behalf of the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, or Team Telecom. The proposed conditions include the new company making available, when requested, network-management information or a list of customers that have hosted payloads on U.S. satellites or are using U.S.-located earth stations to connect with SES satellites. The $3.1 billion deal was announced in April 2024 (see 2404300048).
T-Mobile's opposition to AST SpaceMobile's plans to use the 700 and 800 MHz bands for supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service (see 2506270038) is baseless, AST said in a filing posted Tuesday (docket 25-201). While T-Mobile argues more information is needed, the application is "ample," AST said. The company also noted that T-Mobile is demanding SCS coverage maps from AST, but T-Mobile's SCS partner, SpaceX, didn't provide such maps in its application.