The Federal Communications Commissioners (FCC) are due to meet and vote on September 26th to potentially free up extra bandwidth for satellite communications.

FCC chair Jessice Rosenworcel has written saying that freeing up 1,300 MHz in the 17 GHz band (17.3-17.8 GHz) for high-throughput satellite communications would “facilitate the deployment of high-speed broadband and other advanced satellite services, especially in remote, unserved, and underserved areas,” Rosenworcel wrote in a public draft of the plan.

The band is already in use by the likes of DirecTV and EchoStar’s Dish DBS/DTH signals, but those transmissions are from geostationary satellites which work in equatorial orbits. The FCC’s plan is to allow transmissions from non-geostationary craft and low earth orbiting satellites although subject to strict non-interference rules.

The draft document, issued on September 5th, would:

· Modify the existing rules to permit downlinks
· Allocate frequencies which are currently used exclusively by geostationary operators
· Extend the Equivalent Power Flux-Density limits but protecting existing DBS transmissions
· Permit the technology to be used on ships, motorised vehicles and aircraft

The draft order says the FCC was not persuaded to take up the more stringent measures EchoStar and DirecTV argued for.

The key beneficiaries will be SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper Systems

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Categories: Articles, Policy, Satellite

Tags: Amazon Kuiper, FCC, satellite, spacex