Rules for earth station siting in the millimeter wave bands need to reflect the intention of the FCC's spectrum frontiers order and give operators adequate flexibility, Hughes said in a docket 17-172 posting Wednesday. It said spectrum frontiers' intent is contrary to such ideas as blanket objections during public notice periods when coordinating with upper microwave flexible use services (UMFUS), ignoring the interference impact of grandfathered earth stations in collocation situations. It opposed a UMFUS operator being able to claim that because an earth station buildout is done on a secondary basis, the earth station operator should lose its protected status.
Requiring pico- and nano-satellites have active maneuverability in orbits above 400 kilometers will eliminate about half the launch opportunities and nearly all opportunities for sun-synchronous orbits, several very small satellite operators, the Commercial Picosatellite and Nanosatellite Developers Group, said Wednesday in a docket 18-313 posting. They said the FCC should put maneuverability requirements only on constellations that combined reach some particular mass, such as 100 kilograms. They recommend maneuvering requirements be proportional to the risk, and if a larger satellite and smaller one receive a conjunction notice, the larger one should have to change its orbit more to reduce collision probability. Incentivizing shorter orbits could be a matter of reducing required bonds if the planned orbit is less than 25 years, they said.
Balance Group opposition to SpaceX's ask to operate non-geostationary orbit satellites at lower altitudes than currently approved (see 2004200003) is really a Trojan horse for it to air its grievances with FCC processes for adopting policies Balance doesn't like, SpaceX said in an International Bureau filing Monday, urging dismissal of Balance's opposition. Balance said the SpaceX-requested modification calls into question "the project’s core propositional integrity and planning." It said "critical information" needs to be added to the record, including information about national security, environmental impact, the existence of suitable insurance and indemnification and permissions from other federal agencies that have subject matter jurisdiction. Viasat said SpaceX's orbital debris modeling seems to be based on an outdated version of NASA's debris assessment software and proprietary software, and it should be ordered to use the most-recent version of DAS before its application goes on public notice. SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday.
Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband faces some significant headwinds on its way to business viability, including the difficulty competing in suburban and urban markets with incumbents, CoBank reported Monday. Another competitive challenge is the growth in rural wireless broadband networks due to government incentives and new business models, it said. LEO constellations also could have difficulty getting funding, CoBank said, pointing to OneWeb's bankruptcy (see 2003310042). It said Amazon or SpaceX seem the most likely buyers of bankrupt OneWeb's assets, with its spectrum being particularly attractive. The lender said Amazon doesn't have access-to-capital issues and its opportunity to bundle the broadband with other services gives it particular strength.
When coordinating with other non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service (NGSO FSS) systems, SpaceX can't claim more protection for its Ku-band gateway earth stations than the protection to which a SpaceX user terminal would be entitled at that same location. That according to an FCC International Bureau order Thursday in which it modified its 2019 approval of modifications to SpaceX's NGSO FSS constellation (see 1904260071) with an added condition. The order was in response to a OneWeb petition for reconsideration, which it granted in part. It rejected a Kepler Communications recon petition. SpaceX didn't comment Friday.
Mandatory collision risk insurance and independent "space sustainability" ratings are among options for incentivizing satellite operators to make sure their satellites de-orbit within 25 years of mission completion, said space debris experts Thursday in an Aerospace Corp. webinar. Rebecca Reesman, Aerospace project engineer, said other possible incentives include a de-orbit credit trading regime somewhat akin to carbon credits, government-mandated regulations and industry-created norms. Dan Oltrogge, director of AGI's Center for Space Standards and Innovation, said the FCC's April orbital debris rules update and NPRM (see 2004230040) largely fits with what industry is trying to accomplish. Reesman said compliance with the international 25-year guideline is "not great," and needs to improve, especially with the expected slew of mega constellations. Oltrogge said governmental and private sector tracking of objects and debris in orbit is capturing only about 4% of things above a centimeter in size, but tracking capabilities are improving so the public catalog of tracked debris in five years will be 10 times what it is today. There also will be a tenfold increase in satellites in orbit over the next decade, he said.
Inmarsat wants FCC International Bureau OK to add 4,000 Cobham 6075 terminals to its blanket license for Ka-band land-based terminals, said its application Tuesday. The earth stations will communicate with the Inmarsat-5 F2 and Inmarsat-5 F3 satellites, it said.
Arguments against Swarm being part of the non-voice non-geostationary mobile satellite service processing round are just trying to keep "a dynamic, technologically innovative, and well-funded competitor from competing," the company said in an FCC International Bureau consolidated opposition Monday. The precedent of denying or deferring action involves applications that came years after an initial processing round cut-off date, while Swarm narrowly missed the deadline and it had its petition for market access filed before the commission took action on other applications, it said. The opposition was in response to Hiber, Myriota and Kineis petitions to defer or dismiss or arguments against Swarm's market access ask.
Myriota's 2019 petition to provide non-voice non-geostationary orbit mobile satellite service in the U.S. using an Australia-licensed satellite constellation (see 1908160043) is approved, the FCC International Bureau ordered Friday.
The FCC International Bureau extended the launch and operation milestone for Viasat's Viasat-3 satellite from June 19, 2019, until the end of 2021, said an order in Friday's Daily Digest amending its U.S. market access grant. The bureau also approved removing the 19.7-20.2 GHz downlink and 29.5-30 GHz uplink bands and adding the 17.7-18.3 GHz, 19.3-19.4 GHz and 19.6-19.7 GHz downlink and the 27.5-28.1 GHz and 29.25-29.5 GHz uplink.