SpaceX and Dish Network are fighting the Federal Communications Commission over Dish’s attempt to block a key name needed by SpaceX’s Starlink division to gain FCC broadband funding.
In a SpaceX filing filed yesterday, it is said that Dish’s’ unfounded attempt to ‘block funding’ will only serve to delay the main issue by connecting unscrupulous Americans. While Dish says he has valid concerns about interference in the 12 GHz band, SpaceX described Dish’s complaint to the FCC as a “false submission” which is “only” the latest example of Dish’s misuse of commission resources. in his wrong attempt to expropriate the 12. GHz band. “
The dispute relates to several FCC proceedings, including one on a Starlink petition designated as a suitable telecommunications provider (ETC) under the Communications Act. SpaceX needs this legal guidance in some of the countries where they have received federal funding to deploy broadband in unoccupied areas. Dish has asked the FCC to deny SpaceX the necessary status in the 12 GHz band.
SpaceX has been tentatively awarded $ 885.51 million by the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) for ten years, but the FCC still needs final approval, both for ETC status and the funding itself. Funding SpaceX is needed to deploy broadband to 642,925 homes and businesses in 35 states. For practical purposes, the money would partially subsidize SpaceX’s costs for implementing its low-Earth satellite network that could serve rural areas in the US, not just for those 642,925 locations. Some lobby groups representing small internet service providers have also objected to the financing of SpaceX.
Dish is a satellite TV provider rather than a home internet provider, and did not bid at the RDOF auction. But Dish is building a 5G mobile broadband network that can eventually use spectrum from the 12 GHz band Dish already uses for satellite TV. Because SpaceX also uses 12 GHz frequencies, Dish says it is concerned about interference.
Dish’s interference claims
Dish filed a petition last week asking the FCC to deny SpaceX’s request for ETC status in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, saying it “does not object to ETC status for SpaceX based on its access to other frequency bands. ” Starlink’s 12 GHz ETC status “should be denied or postponed pending DBS resolution [Direct Broadcast Satellite] interference arising in the band from SpaceX’s proposed modification of its satellite system, and the sub – questions presented in the Commission’s recently initiated 12 GHz rule, ”Dish said.
As Dish’s petition noted, SpaceX plans to ‘fly the satellites at less than half’ from the originally planned altitude – 540 km to 570 km instead of 1110 km to 1,325 km – ‘and to the US to send at half the elevation angle. ‘ Dish said he conducted a study using SpaceX’s own data to show that the change could “hinder DBS broadcasts in the 12 GHz band.”
Dish told the FCC that SpaceX’s plan “would adversely affect the reception of DBS consumer facilities and that the system, as amended, would exceed the applicable power restrictions under the rules of the International Telecommunication Union and the Commission. In other words, SpaceX will not be able to. [to] uses the 12 GHz band to meet its RDOF obligations if such service interferes with DBS operations. “
SpaceX disputes Dish’s claim of power constraints, saying that “Dish and his paid consultant claim that they would have used different parameters if they managed SpaceX’s network and the way they would manage it. [power flux-density] perke. “
Dish’s 5G Ambitions
In 2016, a coalition led by Dish asked the FCC to operate 5G mobile services in the 12 GHz band. In response, in January 2021, the FCC issued a notice of proposed regularity seeking public input on whether the Commission could add a new or expanded terrestrial mobile allocation to the 12 GHz band without harming current licensees. to cause. ‘ Dish wants the FCC to postpone any decision on Starlink’s ETC status until this issue resolves the issues of spectrum sharing.
“As far as the 12 GHz rule is concerned, the Commission is considering two-way mobile 5G service in the band, which, depending on the final outcome, could limit SpaceX to use the band as SpaceX proposes,” Dish told the FCC .
SpaceX opposed mobile use in the 12 GHz band.
“Because SpaceX uses the 12 GHz band for downlinks from SpaceX satellites to consumer terminals, any action to weaken the usefulness of the 12 GHz band will directly harm consumers in the short term,” SpaceX told the FCC in June 2020 . “On the other hand, the theoretical land services proposed in the 2016 petition are at most years away from deployment and, if ever deployed, are likely to detect the same geography as today’s terrestrial networks.”
SpaceX: dish tries to “command” spectrum
The submission of SpaceX yesterday said that Dish’s real purpose is “to hinder the ETC designation and RDOF processes as part of Dish’s larger efforts to hinder a competitor and set up valuable spectrum already used by US to serve homes and businesses. “
“Dish provides no valid basis for denying or delaying Starlink Services’ ETC designation,” SpaceX told the FCC. “On the contrary, it would only hamper Starlink Services’ ability to meet its RDOF public interest obligations. More importantly, it would make it difficult to deliver high-quality voice and broadband services to many of our country’s most difficult to serve “communities that have not been connected for too long.”
SpaceX also argued that Dish’s complaints were too late because the FCC had already decided to allow ISPs to use the 12 GHz band to offer subsidized broadband. SpaceX pointed out that the application for a change to its satellite system had been submitted months before the FCC adopted procedures for the RDOF auction. “Nevertheless, the Commission has decided to include the 12 GHz band at the auction and to allow SpaceX to participate, even after a brief review that includes a larger investigation,” SpaceX said. “Dish’s argument that his opposition to the amendment in a way makes the commission’s decisions meaningless is absurd.”
At the RDOF auction, SpaceX said, the FCC did not block the use of the 12 GHz band because ‘that spectrum has already been allocated to NGSO [non-geostationary orbit] satellite usage and licensed to a number of NGSO satellite broadband service systems at the time the procedures were adopted. ‘
SpaceX said that Dish’s petition also ignored the details of the 12 GHz spectrum sharing process in which the SpaceX said: ‘the Commission has made it clear that no new rules can be accepted unless the Commission can do so’ without to cause harmful interference to current licensees’, such as SpaceX. “In addition, the fact that 12 GHz spectrum licenses are subject to future Commission provisions [does not] “anything can change for the purposes of Starlink Services’ ETC petition,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX also struggled with the FCC with Amazon over plans for broadband satellites.
Charter and Frontier also face opposition
SpaceX is not the only large company facing FCC financing. Lobby groups for small ISPs have challenged the funding awarded to Charter and Frontier over the past week. The groups said that the format for the reverse auction was lower than expected, and that would not cover the actual implementation costs. They allege that Charter and Frontier prefer to pay fines to the FCC years later instead of completing the required buildings.
“Charter and Frontier” apparently used a strategy that casts doubt on the true desire to expand gigabit broadband, “the small ISP groups said. The big ISPs have offered and won territories, possibly with the aim of protecting territory and keeping competition, and perhaps considering paying standard fines a few years from now as a fair price to fend off competition and other suppliers withhold to earn access to funding to serve needy areas. Frontier raises the additional concern of being in Chapter 11 bankruptcy which calls into question its financial viability to meet its obligations. ‘
Charter will receive $ 1.22 billion over ten years from the RDOF to bring service to 1.06 million homes and businesses in 24 states. The ISP said it would raise most of the deployment money itself. Charter expects to invest around $ 5 billion to support its development initiative – offset by $ 1.2 billion in support from the RDOF auction – which will expand Charter’s network to lower density, mostly rural communities that do not have access to broadband services of at least 25/3 Mbps, ‘Charter said.
Frontier will receive $ 370.9 million to deploy broadband to 127,188 locations in eight states, even if he misses the broadband deadline. As the FCC has yet to make a final decision on the financing of each ISP, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) called on the commission to reject the financing of Frontier in West Virginia.
Americans pay the RDOF through fees charged on phone bills. Acting FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel objected to the auction going forward when Republican Ajit Pai chaired it, saying the FCC should have waited until it could gather more accurate data on broadband mapping. Rosenworcel has not yet said whether it will make major changes to the funding allocations.
Disclosure: The Advance / Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13 percent of the Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.