(Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
SpaceX is warning that its cellular Starlink system won't be able to provide real-time calling to consumers unless the FCC loosens rules on satellite radio emissions.
"This out-of-band emission restriction will be most detrimental for real-time communications such as voice and video, rendering such communications unreliable both in critical and in common circumstances, increasing risk in emergency situations,” SpaceX told the FCC on Friday.
The company made the statement when AT&T and Verizon — two companies backing a competing satellite provider— have been urging the US regulator to reject SpaceX’s petitions to operate its cellular Starlink tech beyond the normal radio frequency limits.
Although SpaceX’s technology promises to help users receive a signal in cellular dead zones, a key question is whether the Starlink satellites risk generating radio interference. Both AT&T and Verizon contend the technology will do so if the FCC grants SpaceX a waiver to exceed the radio emission limits.
In response, SpaceX has been urging the US regulator to grant the waiver, saying it’s necessary to ensure the cellular Starlink tech can offer robust coverage. At the same time, the company has slammed AT&T and Verizon as “wannabe competitors” resorting to obstructionist tactics.
On Friday, SpaceX went into more details after the FCC submitted a list of questions about the interference concerns. The company’s 11-page letter once again asserts that the cellular Starlink satellites won’t cause radio interference while operating above the normal radio emissions.
Still, SpaceX can comply with the existing regulations on the radio emission limits, but the letter warns that doing so risks “needlessly sacrificing reliable real-time communications, including emergency voice and video, for American consumers, limiting the most powerful supplemental coverage system in the world to just a text service.”
(Credit: SpaceX/FCC)“To achieve this reduction, SpaceX would sacrifice substantial system capacity and capability, either turning down power by half and keeping all beams active, reducing its beam count by half, or a combination of the two,” the company added.
The letter highlights how much is at stake for SpaceX and T-Mobile—the company’s partner on the cellular Starlink system—if the FCC refuses to grant the waiver. SpaceX also claims that imposing the radio emission limit will derail any chance of real-time 911 calls on the company’s cellular Starlink satellites and other competing systems.
“Practically speaking, these constantly moving coverage gaps mean that people standing still would experience variable service quality as they try to make calls, leading to frustrating latency, dropped calls, and reduced throughput,” the company further warned.
To lobby the FCC, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has also tweeted that the cellular Starlink technology promises to benefit all users, since it’ll be able to beam emergency alerts to any phone, regardless of carrier. But the company’s critics, including AT&T, argue that SpaceX is trying to flout firmly established FCC rules.
“They [SpaceX] just need to follow the rules like everybody else. That’s what we’re doing and we’re not having problems with the approvals,” AT&T Head of Network Chris Sambar told PCMag last week. “It’s not that difficult.”
Both AT&T and Verizon have become major partners to AST SpaceMobile, which is preparing to launch its own cellular satellite tech for global coverage.