The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is always suspicious of what it calls “paper satellites”, where an operator files for certain orbital spectrum in order to secure transmission rights to the frequencies. The ITU sets strict term limits on such filings and where the applicant has very tight deadlines to meet.

However, a filing by China for a staggering 244,000 satellites looks real enough but it is still a huge number over and above the current estimate of Chinese-made satellites in orbit which is between 1,300 and 1,900.

A report in hardware and cellular speciality publication WccfTech suggests that China is exploiting loopholes in the ITU’s regulatory architecture. Under the current rules a nation does not need to possess the physical rockets to launch a constellation at the time of filing. The filing entity must deploy 10 per cent of its proposed fleet within nine years of the application being lodged with the ITU. Then it must launch 50 per cent of the proposed fleet within 12 years, and 100 per cent by Year 14.

The filing means that anyone else looking to launch satellites into the orbit/frequencies covered by the filing needs to ‘get in line’ behind the filing and coordinate their application with the initial spoectrum holder – even if nothing has happened with the initial filing.

As the report suggests, China’s answer to Starlink—the Qianfan (Spacesail / Thousand Sails) mega-constellation—is moving into mass production but has launched only about 200 satellites to date.

Not that US-based players are entirely innocent of these ploys. The Jeff Bezos-backed rocket/satellite business Blue Origin has filed for a 51,000 craft constellation. Elon Musk’s SpaceX-AI has talked of 1 million orbital data centres.

The problem for China is now to fulfill the scheme. A senior Chinese official has confirmed the anxieties over launch capacity. Hu Haiying runs the Qianfan satellite system, China’s answer to Starlink. He told Chinese media that space orbits and frequencies are “non-renewable” and going fast. China’s Qianfan has 200 in orbit.

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Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: china, Mega-constellations, satellite