(Credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
DirecTV says its satellite TV service could face disruptions if SpaceX is allowed to increase radio emission levels for Starlink, which SpaceX says will help it increase internet speeds.
In a Monday letter to the Federal Communications Commission, DirecTV argued that the disruption risks are real, citing SpaceX test results that measured the interference levels.
"Further, DirecTV’s analysis reveals significant, unresolved concerns with regard to the 'crossing events' identified by SpaceX in its test report that appear to result in numerous, daily interference events to earth station terminals receiving from GSO [geostationary satellite] networks,” the company wrote.
The clash involves decades-old restrictions on radio emissions for satellite systems, also known as the “equivalent power flux density” rules. In April, the FCC voted to kick off a process to modernize the restrictions to help unleash faster satellite internet services.
(Credit: Ernest Ankomah/Bloomberg via Getty Images)However, as the rule-making process commenced, SpaceX filed its own application in August to waive the “downlink” equivalent power flux density rules for Starlink satellites in the first-generation constellation. The result promises to “provide significantly higher throughput speeds and an increase in network capacity for consumers immediately,” the company told the FCC.
In addition, SpaceX argues it can prevent interference with other satellite networks, despite the increase in radio emissions limits. As evidence, the company submitted test results involving DirecTV Colombia that SpaceX says show the signal degradation risk is "negligible and the increase in short-term link unavailability is only ~0.05%." (DirecTV Colombia is owned by a separate parent company from DirecTV US.)
Still, DirecTV argues that its own analysis of the tests conducted in Colombia validates the interference risks from Starlink, warning they could occur in “other locations within the service area.” The company also warns that its satellite dish terminals for consumers have no way to mitigate any interference from Starlink.
(Credit: DirecTV)DirecTV isn’t alone in opposing SpaceX’s request. Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES told the FCC last month that it had “identified ongoing interference” from Starlink satellites that were already exceeding the power flux density rules.
“After months of investigation, SES traced harmful interference affecting a US government GSO customer to in-line passes of SpaceX NGSO [non-geostationary] satellites with EPFD levels rising and falling as they approached and receded,” the company said. “SES has detected these EPFD limit exceedances on multiple SES satellites, and in the case of the aforementioned US government customer, the resulting harmful interference required SES to relocate the affected customer in order to mitigate the disruption of the customer’s operations.”
(Credit: SES)Although SpaceX says the increased radio emissions are "inadvertent," SES argues the incident underscores the danger of letting Starlink satellites exceed the normal power flux density limits.
However, SpaceX told the FCC earlier this month it should “reject the anti-competitive efforts of legacy GSO operators Viasat, SES/O3b, DirecTV, and Eutelsat/OneWeb.” The company also points to its own testing and similar reports in other locations such as Romania and Nigeria, saying they demonstrate "that the current EPFD limits are extremely overprotective."
“Unfortunately, GSO operators such as Viasat, DirecTV, Eutelsat/OneWeb, and SES/O3b oppose SpaceX’s request, seeking to maintain these inefficient restrictions and hamstring American satellite operators despite the Commission’s clear findings that they no longer serve American consumers,” the company said. “Each of these operators’ arguments lack merit and should be rejected.”
Today, SpaceX has also submitted a new filing, further dismissing the interference allegations from DirecTV and SES. "For its part, DIRECTV presented a poorly designed model as a counter to one of these realworld tests," SpaceX wrote. "This study was prepared by a consultant, Marc Dupuis, with a long history of designing biased studies to disadvantage next-generation satellite systems, and this study does not buck that trend."