Amazon, in a formal letter to the FCC on August 25th, objected to SpaceX’s enhanced plan for almost 30,000 new Starlink satellites and their adjusted orbits.

SpaceX, in a letter to the FCC, said – in essence – that Amazon’s complaint is simply a delaying tactic. The company wrote: “The FCC should recognise this delay tactic for what it is — a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors to compensate for Amazon’s failure to make progress of its own. While SpaceX has proceeded to deploy more than 1,700 satellites, Amazon has yet to even attempt to address the radio-frequency interference and orbital debris issues that must be resolved before Amazon can deploy its constellation.”

“Amazon’s recent missive is unfortunately only the latest in its continuing efforts to slow down competition, while neglecting to resolve the Commission’s concerns about Amazon’s own non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite system. The Commission should see through these efforts and quickly put SpaceX’s application out for public comment where any issues can be fully vetted,” added SpaceX.

Then SpaceX raised the temperature, saying: “The FCC issued an order in July 2020 informing Amazon that it had not provided sufficient information about how its proposed system would protect others from interference or meet the Commission’s rules for orbital debris. But while Amazon has filed nothing with the Commission to address these conditions on its own licence for nearly 400 days, it took only 4 days to object to SpaceX’s next-generation NGSO system. In fact, Amazon has not had a single meeting with the Commission this year about how it intends to resolve the Commission’s interference or safety concerns, but it has had 15 meetings in that same span just about SpaceX. While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year.”

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: Amazon, FCC, spacex