SpaceX's Starlink broadband service subscribers experience fewer service outages than cable customers but more than fiber customers, Recon Analytics noted Monday. Based on surveying more than 1,300 Starlink subscribers between May 12 and July 5, Recon said Starlink subscribers experience "near industry-leading speed consistency with the most reliable router." In addition, it said 11% of Starlink customers are new to home internet and often live in very rural areas. Recon said the rural alternatives to Starlink "are generally underwhelming," with most Starlink subscribers coming from DSL providers or other satellite providers. Starlink must improve its over-the-phone billing and technical support and in-store experience, Recon said. SpaceX didn't commission the survey, Recon told us.

An Israeli company is seeking U.S. market access for its BeetleSat non-geostationary orbit constellation. In an FCC Space Bureau petition posted Monday, NSLComm said BeetleSat will deliver point-to-point secure communications, mobility, cellular backhaul and other services. It said the expandable antennas on the 9 kg nanonsatellites will let it offer Gbps bandwidth communications 100 times more efficient than other systems in operation. NSLComm said it launched its second demonstration satellite, NSLSAT-2, in January 2023. The company plans to deploy two more demonstration satellites by the end of 2025, and commence full-scale commercial BeetleSat services in 2027, with a goal of deploying a 344-satellite constellation in two phases.

SpaceX subsidiary Swarm Technologies wants FCC Space Bureau approval for SpaceX to integrate VHF-band mobile satellite service Swarm antennas as payloads on SpaceX's first-generation non-geostationary orbit satellite system. In an application posted Monday, Swarm said SpaceX's second-gen Starlink satellites have used similar payloads for more than 16 months with no interference complaints. It said the payloads would let SpaceX better track and maintain contact with first-gen satellites during space weather events and orbit raising.

Globalstar received a partial approval for its plan to replenish its first-generation HIBLEO-4 non-geostationary orbit satellite system (see 2308070005). The FCC Space Bureau ordered Friday an extension of Globalstar's license to permit continued operations of the satellites and authorized deployment of up to 17 replacement satellites. It said deployment of the remaining nine in its application was pending agency approval of an updated orbital debris motivation plan. The satellite refresh "is expected to result in improved performance and coverage for Globalstar’s mobile satellite services, including Direct to Device satellite connections, around the world," Globalstar CEO Paul Jacobs said Monday. "Achieving this milestone is imperative to Globalstar to enable us to complete our mission of providing critical mobile satellite connectivity and lifesaving technology worldwide."

Lockheed Martin's $450 million purchase of Terran Orbital should close by year's end, LM said Thursday as it announced the deal for the satellite manufacturer. LM said the agreement needs regulatory and Terran Orbital stockholder approvals. Terran will remain a commercial merchant supplier to industry, LM added.

SpaceX is working its way across the FCC's 10th floor discussing how the agency should assess short-term interference among non-geostationary orbit satellite systems. In a docket 21-456 filing Thursday, it recapped meetings with the offices of FCC Commissioners Nathan Simington, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr, where it argued its technical study of spectrum sharing among NGSO systems (see 2407220021) justified using an absolute change in link availability as the right interference metric.

Facing the prospect that it won't meet its 50%-launched milestone for its 7,500 V-band payloads by the Nov. 19 milestone date, SpaceX is asking the FCC Space Bureau for a modification of its V-band system authorization. In an application posted Wednesday, SpaceX requested that the V-band payloads launched by Nov. 19 on its second-generation satellites be considered its first V-band processing round system. It also asked that it still be allowed to deploy additional V-band payloads on second-gen satellites, up to the 7,500 authorized, after Nov. 19, but for those satellites to be considered part of the second V-band non-geostationary orbit satellite processing round. Those post-Nov. 19 V-band payload deployments would be subject to new milestone requirements, SpaceX said. The company has deployed its second-gen satellites "at a blistering pace" since getting the V-band payload deployment authorization (see 2310160053), it said. SpaceX expects to have more than 1,530 V-band capable satellites in orbit by Nov. 19.

Clarify whether imaging operations for space domain awareness missions make a space vehicle an in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing vehicle under the FCC's proposed ISAM definition, True Anomaly representatives told FCC Space Bureau staffers, said a filing Tuesday (docket 22-271). They also discussed the need for clarity around information submitted in ISAM applications, given that some ISAM missions might arise suddenly, in response to a customer's needs. TA urged that the FCC's proposed ISAM licensing framework be optional, not required, for eligible applicants. That would provide agency staff and applicants flexibility on authorizations for novel space activities, it said.

If all the mega-constellation proposals come to pass, then as many as 29 tons of satellites could reenter the atmosphere daily, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said last week. Before that happens, the environmental impacts must be understood, PIRG added. "We need to look before leaping" and require an environmental review as well as an upper limit on how many satellites can be deployed, PIRG said.

SpaceX asked the FCC to start a proceeding to revise the U.S.' geostationary/non-geostationary orbit spectrum sharing methodology for NGSO fixed satellite service downlinks. In its petition Monday, SpaceX called the existing equivalent power flux density (EPFD) limits "critically out of date" and said they are "significantly overprotective of GSO networks." SpaceX cheered 2023's World Radiocommunication Conference calling for studies of higher EPFD limits ahead of WRC-27 (see 2312200046). But in its petition, SpaceX said studies "will leave American consumers waiting for years after they have already had their broadband service unnecessarily restricted for decades. The American people should not have to wait any longer." The petition said GSO operators have used the EPFD limits as a competitive cudgel, "sandbag[ging] Commission staff in licensing proceedings based on speculative claims of interference from NGSO systems [and using] these inefficient rules to prevent U.S.-licensed NGSO systems from entering new markets abroad." The agency should seek comment on short-term and long-term GSO protection criteria and identify realistic GSO links that can be used to demonstrate compliance with those short-term and long-term limits.