ELON Musk and SpaceX have issued a warning against ground-based internet networks tapping into the same frequency used for their satellite-powered web services.
There are almost 3,000 Starlink satellites in orbit providing internet to 400,000 customers.
3
3
3
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering opening up the 12GHz band to ground-based 5G service providers like Dish Network.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellites use this frequency to beam their internet connectivity to customers all over the world.
“If Dish’s lobbying efforts succeed, our study shows that Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans,” SpaceX wrote in an analysis.
The private space company says that its terminals are not fitted to block the type of interference that would come from Dish Network’s transmissions.
In their analysis, SpaceX gripes with their competitors’ report to the FCC, which they claim “does not reflect reality.”
Dish Network’s outsourced report claims that a “negligible” amount of Starlink customers would be adversely affected by opening up the 12GHz band to their company and others like it.
SpaceX took it a step further and encouraged the FCC to investigate whether ground-based telecommunications companies “filed intentionally misleading reports” in a letter to the regulators.
They also attacked Dish Network’s history of “broken promises”.
Most read in Tech
The FCC has not issued a final decision yet.
“We are combing through engineering documents,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a hearing before a House of Representatives committee. “We have our best engineers assessing this right now.”
President Biden appointed Rosenworcel as Chair of the FCC in 2021 – she became the first woman to hold the position.
Rosenworcel has corresponded with Musk directly in the past and greenlit previous Starlink requests.
She has worked to ease the rivalry between Amazon’s Project Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink for satellite-powered dominance.
