This comes after several SpaceX competitors—including EchoStar, Viasat, and Globalstar—told the FCC that the proposed upgrades threaten the satellite industry as a whole.
SpaceX is calling on the FCC to “swiftly” approve its plan to upgrade the Starlink network with gigabit speeds, touting the benefits while firing back at its critics.
“SpaceX urges its competitors to direct their energy away from anticompetitive attacks on responsible US systems and toward improving the sustainability of their own unreliable or unproven systems,” the company told the US regulator today.
SpaceX sent the 54-page letter to the FCC two weeks after several satellite companies—Globalstar, Viasat, Hughesnet’s parent Echostar, and Iridum—urged the commission to dismiss or deny certain parts of the proposed upgrades. «The commission should recognize SpaceX’s applications for what they are—a serious threat to competition,” Viasat said at the time.
SpaceX is pressing the FCC to let it operate 30,000 Starlink satellites, or a three-fold increase, and access a broader range of radio spectrum bands. This promises to deliver gigabit internet speeds to Starlink users and improved satellite connectivity, including 6G, to mobile phones.
However, rival satellite companies like Eutelsat/OneWeb have raised concerns or objected to the proposed upgrades, citing fears it’ll generate radio interference with their own networks.
