Starlink Soars High: FCC Reserves Key Spectrum For Satellite Broadband

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has decided to allocate a portion of the 12 GHz band for satellite broadband services, including SpaceX‘s Starlink, despite opposition from other providers. 

What Happened: The FCC proposed rules to reserve the spectrum between 12.2 and 12.7 GHz exclusively for satellite services, while the 12.7-13.25 GHz spectrum will support terrestrial wireless use. 

The agency cited the risk of harmful interference to the satellite broadband market as the reason for not authorizing terrestrial mobile use of the 12.2 GHz band. Starlink expressed its support for the decision on Twitter. 

Why It Matters: This decision is significant as the 500 megahertz of mid-band spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz range is crucial for broadband communications and serves both ground-based and space-based services. 

In January 2021, the FCC had sought comments on how to best use the band. Broadband companies like Dish Network Corp DISH and RS Access argued that ground-based 5G networks could share the frequency with low Earth orbit satellite networks, such as Starlink or OneWeb. SpaceX’s Starlink, however, said it would cause interference and cause service outages 74% of the time, as reported by CNBC.

“Their attempt to bait and switch satellite spectrum for cellular spectrum is super shady and unethical,” Musk said in a tweet in June. Musk also said that the Chairperson of Dish Charlie Ergen is trying to steal the 12GHz band meant for space Internet.

Other telecom players and satellite network operators like AT&T Inc T, Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, Microsoft Corp MSFT, Intelsat and SES also opposed the expansion.

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