SpaceX is escalating a regulatory battle against Dish Network for rights over the 12GHz band by calling on Starlink subscribers to petition the FCC in the company’s favor.
On Tuesday, SpaceX sent out a message to US-based Starlink customers, asking them to sign a petition, which is designed to be sent to both the FCC and US lawmakers.
“Today we ask for your support in ending a lobbying campaign that threatens to make Starlink unusable for you and the vast majority of our American customers,” SpaceX wrote in the message, according to Starlink users on Reddit and Facebook.
The regulatory battle centers on the 12GHz spectrum; Dish Network is asking the FCC for rights to the radio band to operate a 5G ground-based cellular network. However, SpaceX claims the plan will come at the cost of Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service, which already uses the 12GHz spectrum to help it offer high-speed download rates.
The companies have been feuding on the matter for months now. But last week, SpaceX publicly claimed Dish’s 5G plan risked making Starlink “unusable,” citing a study the company conducted. SpaceX is now pressuring the FCC to reject Dish’s effort to secure the 12GHz spectrum by circulating the petition to Starlink subscribers.
“In reality, if Dish gets their way, Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans,” the company wrote in Tuesday’s message to Starlink customers.
The petition itself is hosted on votervoice.net and is designed to send a pre-written message urging the FCC and US lawmakers to “reject efforts to repurpose” the 12GHz spectrum available to satellite operators such as SpaceX. In response, many Starlink users are already asking their peers to sign the petition.
Dish Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company is part of the 5G for 12GHz coalition, which claims Dish’s 5G network aspirations can coexist with Starlink’s use of the same spectrum with limited interference. The coalition previously told PCMag it remains “committed to working in good faith with the FCC and stakeholders to ensure that the American public is able to reap the immense benefits of 5G services in this band.”