SpaceX has been urging the FCC to revise the ‘equivalent power flux density’ rules, calling them outdated and a barrier to delivering better Starlink service.
The Federal Communications Commission is gearing up to potentially relax radio emission restrictions for Starlink. SpaceX has been lobbying to revise the rules, calling them outdated and a detriment to its satellite internet service.
On Friday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr previewed the agency’s agenda for this month, saying one item will seek “to unleash even faster and more robust broadband services from space.”
“Specifically, we will look to update our rules in the frequencies commonly known by satellite aficionados (read: nerds) as the Ka- and Ku- bands,” he said. Although Starlink wasn’t named, the satellite internet service uses both Ka- and Ku- radio bands to transmit data.
Carr described the radio bands as “workhorse satellite frequencies that support the next generation of mega constellations in low-Earth orbit.”
“Unfortunately, new innovations have been held back by FCC technical rules that we adopted thirty years ago,” he added. “Power limits developed in the 1990s to protect geostationary satellite systems from interference continue to restrict the performance of non-geostationary satellite systems, even though advancements in sharing technology arguably make the rules of the past no longer necessary.
