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In early August, when business activity was quiet over the summer, Elon Musk’s SpaceX quietly opened a new front in a global battle over a rare and precious resource: radio spectrum.
Its goal was to create a vague international regulation governing the way satellite operators share spectrum, the invisible highway of electromagnetic waves that enable all radio technology, in different orbits. The weapon of choice was the US regulatory body, the Federal Communications Commission.
On August 9, SpaceX already filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to relax globally agreed-upon power limits on transmissions from operators like it in low Earth orbit, the region of space up to 2,000 kilometers above the surface of the planet, which is scheduled to… It will be a pivotal arena in the future of communications, transportation and defense.
So-called epfd rules were defined more than 20 years ago to ensure that signals from low Earth orbit do not interfere with signals from systems in a higher geostationary or geostationary orbit.
SpaceX, which has the world’s fastest-growing satellite broadband network, Starlink, told the regulator that these “antiquated restrictions” were inappropriate “for the modern space age.” She went on to accuse the international process that governs the rules of having been hijacked by an alliance between operators of legacy fixed systems and “America’s staunchest adversaries.”
She said that “the United States’ global competitiveness in the new space economy” and the future of satellite communications are at stake.
This SpaceX campaign is the second attempt in less than a year to revise these highly technical rules. Nine months ago, during the World Radiocommunication Conference, where regulations governing the use of the spectrum are determined, SpaceX lost, along with Kuiper, which is Amazon’s project to build a competitor to Musk’s system – an initial attempt to gain global support for changing energy restrictions.
Although many in the industry believe the review is long overdue, discussions have been tense and divisive, according to participants. On one side are technology startups threatening low-Earth orbit satellite networks, and the business models of established competitors offering high-speed, low-latency broadband services.
On the other side are incumbent fixed operators such as Viasat and SES, which have been running systems since the early days of satellite broadband and are concerned that any changes might interfere with their networks.
Governments such as Japan, France, Germany and Brazil shared concerns about overlap, but also had broader strategic questions about proposals that would enhance the power of these players. While welcoming the communications service provided by Musk’s network, some governments have also expressed concerns about increasing reliance on a service run by an individual, whose interventions in political and cultural issues have often been controversial.
What may initially seem like an obscure technical dispute has become the title of a broader conflict: over the power of American billionaires in a poorly regulated but strategic space region; As well as about the implications for competition; national sovereignty; and equal access to the economic benefits offered by low Earth orbit.
Musk was not the first to imagine the possibility of a huge constellation of satellites providing communications from low Earth orbit. But he was quickest to seize the opportunity to provide broadband access to the most remote parts of the planet, thanks to the fact that his rocket company, SpaceX, is able to deploy satellites at record speed.
In the five years since its first launch, the Starlink network has grown to include more than 6,000 operational satellites, about two-thirds of all active spacecraft orbiting the Earth today. It operates in more than 100 countries and has proven indispensable to Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, and in emergency situations such as the earthquake that rocked Japan’s Noto Peninsula this year.
Soon, Project Kuiper, founded by Jeff Bezos’ Amazon company, will begin rolling out its network, and services are expected to begin from low Earth orbit next year. The company plans to have more than 3,000 satellites to provide broadband services, and like SpaceX, it will have its own launch provider. It would mean that two American companies, backed by two of the world’s richest people, could have overwhelming dominance over a crucial area of the space industry.
There is great concern in many countries about the risks of interfering with vital services provided by geographic operators if power limits are relaxed, but there is also a lot of reluctance to do anything to prevent SpaceX, and ultimately the Kuiper project, from becoming more… dominance.
It is this band of electromagnetic waves that enables all modern wireless technology, transmitting data for everything from mobile communications to emergency services, navigation and Wi-Fi networks. “It is the oxygen of the technology and innovation ecosystem,” says Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner at the US Federal Communications Commission.
Different frequencies are used for different purposes, depending on their range, amplitude, and ability to penetrate obstacles. Very low frequencies can be used for limited long-range communications, while satellites use much higher frequencies. But the problem is that this spectrum is limited.
In the more than 120 years since Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated its practical use as a means of wireless communication, most usable bands of radio spectrum have been allocated for specific purposes, from television broadcasting to emergency services to Wi-Fi communications.
Now, with the world’s appetite for wireless connectivity exploding, these bands are becoming crowded; No one feels this crowding more than the rapidly evolving commercial space sector. Therefore, some satellite operators are seeking “back roads” to access more spectrum, such as in an attempt to ease power constraints.
Such a request is not an easy matter. Long before the Space Age, spectrum use was coordinated on a global and regional basis by the International Telecommunication Union, a special agency of the United Nations.
The basic principle is that it should be used as efficiently as possible, advocating that older technologies should give way to newer ones, to ensure maximum exploitation of a limited resource.
Therefore, every three to four years, the ITU brings together spectrum regulators from more than 190 countries with industry at the World Radiocommunication Conference to review and, if necessary, revise the Radio Regulations, an international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and orbits.
During these meetings, agreement is reached on which domains will be used and for what purpose. However, ITU Member States remain ultimately sovereign in deciding how to allocate and regulate spectrum within their own borders. It can determine the terms and conditions of operation locally. On this basis, SpaceX submitted a request to the Federal Communications Commission to relax energy limits in the United States.
SpaceX’s attempt to change the rules is not exceptional. As David Willis, spectrum director at Ofcom, says, spectrum has “always” been used as an anti-competitive weapon in space. Satellite companies are not just fighting terrestrial telecommunications companies, they are fighting each other. If you want to agree on a launch in a reasonable period, the only place you can go is SpaceX. It is an imbalance of power.
The intervention generally highlights weaknesses in spectrum governance, several industry executives assert. The new space industry is developing at a rapid pace, but any changes in regulations can only be agreed upon every 3-4 years at best, and in many cases it may reach 8 years.
The current system grants equal rights to each country, which some ITU members believe makes it ineffective and unable to reform. Over time, the ITU and WRC have become “more politically driven,” as countries seek to influence governance and allocate spectrum for uses favored by their industries and economies, says one senior industry member.
Many also see the WRC as increasingly becoming a forum for political bargaining, rather than engineering- and physics-based discussions about the best use of the frequency spectrum.
In response to SpaceX and Kuiper’s request, the World Radiocommunication Conference summit last year postponed the matter until a later time, indicating that it would allow studies to determine whether it was possible to relax the limits without endangering satellite operators, but it cannot There will be regulatory measures before 2031.
Some ITU member states that opposed the proposal argue that any changes to power limits should be part of broader reforms to how spectrum is managed. “The SpaceX and Kuiper proposal was not balanced,” says an official from a country opposed to the proposal. They only look at one aspect that would be in their interest if it changed, while other aspects must necessarily be taken into account.”
With the regulatory framework slow to react and adapt, some fear that no one will monitor the potential conflicts of interest that arise in the new space economy.
For example, some question whether SpaceX’s dominant position in providing launch services gives it an unfair advantage in negotiating spectrum-sharing agreements with companies seeking to put their satellites into orbit. The more satellites these systems have, the more flexible they are to accommodate other systems.
Under ITU rules, the first to apply for a spectrum license in a particular band has priority rights to signal transmissions. Anyone who later submits a request to use this band must ensure that it does not interfere with the transmissions of those who have priority, adding more cost and complexity to the network.
Coordination deals can be concluded to share these rights. But if SpaceX is able to use its launch services as leverage for a more favorable agreement on spectrum sharing, there will be no regulatory body that can sound the alarm, some satellite companies say.
In a recent post on LinkedIn, Oudrewolf-Pekka, SpaceX’s chief representative to the International Telecommunication Union, commented on the results of a study conducted with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, saying that the company’s satellites were able to “dynamically direct satellite packages away from… telescopes in a fraction of a thousandth of a second” to avoid interference, noting that “this is an effective use of spectrum!”
Not all satellite operators are immediately opposed to the idea of revising the rules, even if the changes could make Starlink and Project Kuiper more formidable competitors. Daniel Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, which just raised C$2.54 billion ($1.89 billion) in government funding for a planned low-Earth orbit broadband constellation called Lightspeed, agrees that these rules should be considered given the rapid changes in Technology.
The more satellites these systems include, the more flexibility they have to accommodate other systems, he says. This is only because it has a higher chance of being handed over to another satellite if there is interference.
The Federal Communications Commission said SpaceX’s petition is still pending. While the United States has supported the principle of changing the rules, the head of the Federal Communications Commission recently acknowledged concerns about Starlink’s dominant position. Jessica Rosenworcel said during a recent conference in Washington:
We have one player that has almost two-thirds of the satellites in space now, and it has a very high share of Internet traffic. She added: The way I see it is that our economy does not benefit from such monopolies.
But not all FCC commissioners are this concerned. Speaking to the Financial Times before the SpaceX petition was filed, Republican Commissioner Carr said he believes Starlink is “a major asset in a global race for technological supremacy.”
He asserts that the United States is already lagging behind other countries, including China, in freeing up spectrum for the most disruptive technologies. Now Beijing is planning to launch its own versions of Starlink.
