FCC boost for satellite broadband
May 1, 2026
By Colin Mann
The FCC has voted to modernise its satellite spectrum-sharing rules, describing the move as a major step toward enhancing the satellite broadband experience for millions of Americans by enabling faster speeds, lower costs, and greater reliability. This change could also unlock more than $2 billion (€1.7bn) in economic benefits for the American people and up to seven-fold more capacity for space-based broadband services.
The Report and Order adopted replaces the Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) framework with modern, performance-based GSO protection criteria that take account of the improved spectrum sharing possibilities that modern satellite technology has brought, including through use of adaptive coding and modulation (ACM). The new sharing regime builds on the Commission’s time-tested framework for good-faith coordination to allow NGSO and GSO operators to bargain for appropriate interference protections through voluntary, private agreements.
According to the FCC, the current, decades-old regulatory regime has significantly limited the ability of operators to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband services to consumers. Until now, NGSO operators’ power levels have been restricted by EPFD limits developed in the late-1990s to protect GSO satellites. Such limits were based on theoretical designs for NGSO systems of that era, long before modern advancements were developed for the NGSO constellations currently in orbit. This government-imposed overprotection of GSO systems has meant that American households and businesses – most critically in rural and remote areas – do not receive the fastest space-based broadband American innovation has available.