SpaceX and Dish Network are fighting in the Federal Communications Commission over Dish’s attempt to block a key designation that SpaceX’s Starlink division needs to obtain broadband funding from the FCC.
A SpaceX document filed yesterday said that Dish’s “unsubstantiated attempt” to block funding “would only serve to delay what is most important – connecting unserved Americans”. Although Dish says it has valid concerns about interference in the 12 GHz band, SpaceX described Dish’s complaint to the FCC as a “facially spurious filing” that “is just the latest example of Dish’s abuse of Commission resources in its mistaken effort to expropriate the 12 GHz band. “
The dispute relates to several FCC procedures, including one in a Starlink petition seeking designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Operator (ETC) under the Communications Act. SpaceX needs this legal designation in some of the states where it has won federal funding to deploy broadband in unattended areas. Dish asked the FCC to deny SpaceX the necessary status in the 12 GHz band.
SpaceX has provisionally received $ 885.51 million over 10 years from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), but it still needs final FCC approval, both for ETC status and for the financing itself. SpaceX financing would require the deployment of broadband in 642,925 homes and businesses in 35 states. For practical purposes, the money would partially subsidize SpaceX’s costs to deploy its low-earth orbit satellite network that could serve rural areas across the U.S., not just for those 642,925 locations. Some lobby groups representing small Internet service providers were also opposed to SpaceX funding.
Dish is a satellite TV provider instead of a home Internet provider and did not bid in the RDOF auction. But Dish is building a 5G mobile broadband network that could eventually use the spectrum of the 12 GHz band that Dish already uses for satellite TV. With SpaceX also using 12 GHz frequencies, Dish says he is concerned about interference.
Dish 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, while saying “it is not opposed to ETC status for SpaceX based on your access to other frequency bands. ” Starlink’s ETC status for 12 GHz “must be denied or postponed, pending DBS resolution [Direct Broadcast Satellite] interference concerns that arise in that band from SpaceX’s proposed modification of its satellite system, and the sharing issues raised by the Commission recently initiated 12 GHz regulation, “said Dish.
As Dish’s petition noted, SpaceX intends to “fly its satellites less than half” from the originally planned altitude – 540 km to 570 km instead of 1,110 km to 1,325 km – “and transmit to the United States at almost half the elevation. ” Dish said it commissioned a study using data from SpaceX itself to show that the move “could jeopardize DBS transmissions in the 12 GHz band”.
Dish told the FCC that SpaceX’s plan “would adversely affect reception at DBS consumer antennas and that the modified system would exceed the energy limits applicable under the rules of the International Telecommunication Union and the Commission. In other words, the SpaceX would not be able to [to] use the 12 GHz band to fulfill its RDOF obligations if such a service interferes with DBS operations. “
SpaceX contested Dish’s claim about power limits, saying that “Dish and its paid consultant only claim that they would have used different parameters if they ran the SpaceX network and the way they would run it could violate [power flux-density] Limits. “
Dish’s 5G Ambitions
In 2016, a coalition led by Dish asked the FCC to allow 5G mobile services to operate in the 12 GHz band. In response, the FCC in January 2021 issued a Regulatory Proposal Notice that seeks public opinion on “whether the Commission could add a new or expanded terrestrial mobile allocation in the 12 GHz band without causing harmful interference to incumbent licensees. ” Dish wants the FCC to postpone any decision on Starlink’s ETC status until this procedure resolves spectrum sharing issues.
“As for the 12 GHz regulation, the Commission is considering allowing bi-directional 5G mobile service in the band, which, depending on the end result, may limit SpaceX from using the band as SpaceX proposes,” Dish told the FCC.
SpaceX was opposed to mobile use in the 12 GHz band.
“Since SpaceX is using the 12 GHz band for downlinks from SpaceX satellites to consumer terminals, any action to degrade the usefulness of the 12 GHz band will directly harm consumers in the short term,” SpaceX told the FCC in June 2020. “In contrast, the theoretical ground services proposed in the 2016 Petition are, at best, years of deployment and, if they are ever deployed, are likely to trace the same geography as today’s terrestrial networks.”
SpaceX: Dish trying to “command” the spectrum
The SpaceX filing said yesterday that Dish’s real purpose is “to obstruct ETC designation and RDOF processes as part of Dish’s larger efforts to harm a competitor and command the valuable spectrum that is already being used to serve American homes and businesses. “
“Dish does not provide a valid basis for denying or postponing the ETC designation of Starlink Services,” SpaceX told the FCC. “Rather, it would only serve to hinder Starlink Services’ ability to fulfill its RDOF public interest obligations. Even more importantly, it would delay the provision of high quality voice and broadband services to many of the most difficult to serve communities, which have already have been disconnected for a long time. “
SpaceX also argued that Dish’s complaints come too late because the FCC has already decided to allow ISPs to use the 12 GHz band to offer subsidized broadband. SpaceX noted that its request to change its satellite system “was submitted months before” the FCC adopted procedures for the RDOF auction. “However, the Commission decided to include the 12 GHz band in the auction and allow SpaceX to participate, even after a brief review involving intensified scrutiny,” said SpaceX. “Dish’s argument now that his opposition to the modification in some way makes these Commission decisions meaningless is absurd.”
At the RDOF auction, SpaceX said, the FCC did not block the use of the 12 GHz band because “this spectrum had already been allocated to NGSO [non-geostationary orbit] use of satellite and licensed for a number of NGSO satellite systems for broadband service at the time the procedures were adopted. “
SpaceX said Dish’s petition also ignored details of the 12 GHz spectrum sharing process in which, SpaceX said, “the Commission made it clear that no new rules could be adopted unless the Commission could do so” without causing interference. harmful to historic licensees “. like SpaceX.” In addition, “the fact that 12 GHz spectrum licenses are subject to future Commission rules [does not] change anything for the purposes of the Starlink Services ETC Petition, “SpaceX said.
SpaceX also fought Amazon on the FCC over companies’ plans to duel broadband via satellite.
Carta and Fronteira also face opposition
SpaceX is not the only major company facing opposition to FCC funding. Lobbying groups for small ISPs last week contested the provisional funding granted to Charter and Frontier. The reverse auction format resulted in financing premiums that were lower than expected and do not cover actual implementation costs, the groups said. They claimed that Charter and Frontier may prefer to pay penalties to the FCC years in the future, rather than actually completing the necessary construction.
Charter and Frontier “appear to have used a strategy that questions the real desire to build gigabit broadband,” said small ISP groups. The big ISPs “bid and won areas, possibly with the intention of protecting the territory and keeping the competition under control, perhaps seeing the payment of default penalties several years from now as a fair price to pay to ward off competition and prevent others providers gain access to finance to serve underserved areas. Frontier has the additional concern of being in Chapter 11 of bankruptcy, calling into question its financial viability to meet its commitments. “
Charter is set to receive $ 1.22 billion over 10 years from RDOF to bring service to 1.06 million homes and businesses in 24 states. The ISP said it would put most of the deployment money itself. “Charter expects to invest approximately $ 5 billion to support its construction initiative – offset by $ 1.2 billion in support won at the RDOF auction – expanding Charter’s network to low-density communities, especially rural ones that do not have access to broadband service of at least 25/3 Mbps, “said Charter.
Frontier is expected to receive US $ 370.9 million to deploy broadband in 127,188 locations in eight states, although it has not met previous broadband deployment deadlines. Since the FCC has yet to make a final decision on the financing of each ISP, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) urged the commission to reject Frontier’s funding in West Virginia.
The RDOF is paid by Americans through fees charged on telephone bills. FCC acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel opposed the auction when Republican Ajit Pai was president, saying the FCC should have waited until it could collect more accurate broadband mapping data. Rosenworcel has not yet said whether he will make major changes to funding premiums.
Disclosure: The Advance / Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13 percent of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.