SpaceX is hoping to kick off a satellite test for its Starlink cellular service later this year, but SpaceX says AT&T and a trade association are trying to prevent the effort.
SpaceX's main application to offer the service is still moving through the FCC regulatory process. But earlier this month, the company filed a “special temporary authority (STA)" application to launch and start testing a second-generation Starlink satellite as soon as Dec. 1.
The satellite would be equipped with “direct-to-cellular communications payloads to connect unmodified cellular phones directly to SpaceX Gen2 satellites,” the application says.
The test would involve beaming data to smartphones using T-Mobile’s “PCS G-Block” radio spectrum. "The STA would also allow SpaceX to confirm the operational status of its direct-to-cell satellites and their ability to communicate with cell phones immediately upon insertion, rather than waiting weeks while the satellites complete orbit raising to ensure proper functioning," SpaceX added.
SpaceX originally filed the STA on Oct. 2. But the application has since encountered resistance from AT&T and the Rural Wireless Association, which both lodged regulatory complaints with the FCC last week over the test.
In May, both AT&T and the Rural Wireless Association told the FCC that SpaceX needs to supply more technical details about the Starlink cellular service and prove the technology won’t cause interference with other carriers.
AT&T now argues that SpaceX is trying to conduct the Starlink cellular test under the wrong regulatory process. “Instead, the proper venue to authorize the novel testing SpaceX seeks is through an experimental license from the Office of Engineering and Technology,” the carrier wrote in its own filing.
The Rural Wireless Association agrees; it added that SpaceX needs to first demonstrate the cellular Starlink service won’t cause interference before kicking off the real-world test. “If such testing is authorized, it should be authorized through an experimental license, granted by the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, not an STA request,” the association said.
Still, SpaceX last Friday said it filed an application to conduct the test, noting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel gave a speech in February about working to make it easier for satellite companies to serve US customers through new broadband options.
“Unfortunately, now that SpaceX is on the cusp of reaching the Chairwoman’s goals by deploying a system that will finally bring ubiquitous connectivity across the country, AT&T and Dish-mouthpiece the Rural Wireless Association ('RWA') have seemingly coordinated a desperate, 11th-hour campaign to prevent it,” the company said.
SpaceX is now calling on the FCC to quickly approve its STA, arguing that both “AT&T and RWA raise a series of baseless procedural claims while offering no substantive reason to deny the application.”
“Further, an STA would be technically identical to an experimental license, presenting no increased risk of harmful interference—indeed, no harmful interference risk at all—to other spectrum users,” the company added.
SpaceX is aiming to start serving customers with its Starlink cellular option as soon as next year. The same service is also poised to compete with AST Space Mobile’s own cellular satellite system, of which AT&T is a partner.