Comments are due July 28, replies Aug. 27, on updating spectrum sharing rules between geostationary and non-geostationary orbit satellite systems operating in the 10.7-12.7, 17.3-18.6 and 19.7-20.2 GHz frequency bands, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. The docket is 25-157. Commissioners unanimously adopted the spectrum-sharing NPRM at their April meeting (see 2504280038).
Amazon is now eyeing Monday to launch its second batch of 27 Kuiper satellites, it said this week. The launch had originally been planned for Friday (see 2505290004).
Starlink's median download and upload speeds dramatically increased over the past three years, while its latency is down considerably, Ookla said Tuesday. It said U.S. users of the SpaceX satellite broadband service saw download speeds nearly double between the Q3 2022 average of 54 Mbps and Q1 2025's 104.7 Mbps. Upload speeds went from 7.5 Mbps on average to 14.8 Mbps. Ookla said its Speedtest data showed that only 17.4% of U.S. Starlink users are getting service that meets the 100/20 Mbps definition of broadband, primarily due to upload speeds. Starlink's promotional offer of free equipment to subscribers in areas where it has excess capacity should help drive its subscriber count, Ookla said.
The European Commission has signed off on SES' purchase of Intelsat without conditions. The satellite communications and broadcast delivery markets have other "credible competitors" that will exert "sufficient competitive pressure" on the newly combined company, it said. The new entity will also face fiber and low earth orbit satellite competition and won't be able to foreclose downstream competitors by restricting access to its satellite capacity, the commission added. Transfer of Intelsat's FCC licenses to SES is still pending at the agency.
Earth exploration satellite service (EESS) startup Novi Space wants to launch a pair of non-geostationary orbit EESS satellites in 2026. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday seeking authorization, Novi said its satellites will collect data and then downlink it either to commercial ground stations or Iridium's satellite constellation. It said it anticipates putting up the two satellites on SpaceX launches scheduled for January and June next year.
FCC licensees will now be charged regulatory fees on authorized satellites and earth stations, rather than on operational ones. A regulatory fees order in Tuesday's Daily Digest said the agency is also setting a two-tier non-geostationary orbit satellite regulatory fee category: one for small constellations of fewer than 1,000 authorized satellites, and one for 1,000 or more. Those categories replace the existing "less complex" and "other" NGSO fee categories, it said. The changes "will more accurately" apportion fee burdens among licensees, and most will pay lower per-unit fees in FY 2025 than FY 2024, the FCC said. The changes "support the Commission’s goal that our regulatory fees are fair, administrable, and sustainable." It noted that the order was adopted last week, and then-Commissioner Geoffrey Starks didn't participate. The changes will go into effect with the FY 2025 regulatory fees.
AST SpaceMobile told the FCC Space Bureau the agency should continue to assess regulatory fees only on authorized and operational satellites and earth stations, not pre-operational ones. In docket 24-85 Thursday, AST recapped a meeting with the bureau, at which the company said charging such pre-operational regulatory fees could add big costs to new satellite deployments before a licensee has the opportunity to start service and earn revenues. Nonoperational systems require minimal post-authorization regulatory oversight, it said.
Satellite operators seeking regulatory OK to operate in other nations are facing intensifying geopolitical tensions, with governments increasingly concerned with national security and disruption to local telcos, Valour Consultancy wrote Tuesday. It said SpaceX's Starlink and OneWeb are particularly susceptible to those tensions. They and other low earth orbit networks face greater regulatory scrutiny than geostationary orbit satellites, which can result in operation delays or denials, Valour said. Like Russia and China, Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia also have shown reluctance to approve Western-affiliated networks, it said, adding that Amazon's Kuiper might end up facing similar hurdles.
Blue Origin is now aiming for an August launch for its Moon Lander MK1 Pathfinder mission, it told the FCC Space Bureau in a filing posted Wednesday. The proposed mission was originally expected in Q1 2025 (see 2408020001). The company told the bureau this week that once the lander touches down on the moon's surface, its mission there should take about 24 hours. Blue Origin anticipates using the S band for mission uplinks and downlinks, with the X band as a backup, it said.
The Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council asked the FCC Wireless Bureau to revisit some coordination procedures for commercial space launch service laid out in a public notice the bureau issued in March (see 2503260003). In a reconsideration petition posted Tuesday (docket 13-115), the organization challenged a limit on coordinating with primary aeronautical mobile telemetry operations that support flight testing in the 2360-2395 MHz band. The bureau decided to restrict the scope of coordination because there have been no complaints of harmful interference to date, which AFTRCC said ignores the fact that there have been few launches where using the 2360-2395 MHz Band was even a possibility. The group also asked for reconsideration of the decision not to require suborbital launch coordination requests to include duration of transmission information. In addition, it requested that the FCC reconsider the decision not to require space launch operators to make initial coordination requests at least 60 days before prospective launch windows. The bureau should clarify that new coordination is needed if the timing of a proposed launch changes to fall completely or partially outside a previously coordinated launch window, it said.