Amazon and Viasat are at odds over conditions on Viasat's pending satellite applications. Viasat last month told the FCC its earth stations' use of the 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz band segments pose no interference threat to non-geostationary orbit operations there. It added there's no need for conditions requiring coordination or technical demonstrations. Amazon told the FCC Space Bureau Tuesday the examples Viasat lists to bolster that argument involved relatively minor modifications of existing authorizations. It urged agency approval of Viasat's pending applications be conditioned on Viasat entering into a coordination agreement with relevant NGSO fixed satellite service operators and showing how it will protect relevant NGSO FSS systems.

During oral argument Monday on Dish Network’s challenge to the FCC’s approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2312110031), Judge Neomi Rao asked whether a treaty governs the relationship between the U.S. and the ITU. “The answer is yes,” FCC attorney James Carr wrote to the clerk of the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday (docket 23-1001). Adopted in 1992, the ITU’s Constitution and Convention “is a treaty establishing the legal basis for the ITU and defining its purpose and structure,” Carr said. Earlier, Rao questioned whether an argument that the FCC impermissibly subdelegated authority to the ITU was inherently a challenge of FCC rules. Dish's counsel, Steptoe’s Pantelis Michalopoulos, immediately responded to Carr’s missive with his own letter to the D.C. Circuit clerk, "correct[ing] a possible misunderstanding” that Carr's missive raised, he wrote. “While the ITU has been created by treaty, the ITU’s findings do not have the force of a treaty, and the FCC has correctly not argued in its brief that they have such force,” Michalopoulos wrote. The ITU treaty’s preamble “makes clear” that it’s the sovereign right of each country to regulate its telecommunications, he said.

Satellite interests successfully headed off terrestrial mobile encroachment into the 10-15 GHz span at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, said Isabelle Mauro, Global Satellite Operators Association executive director, Thursday during a GSOA webinar. She said the industry pushed back hard at WRC-23 against identification of spectrum in that span for terrestrial mobile use, and the net result is it won't be studied for future identification for international mobile telecommunications (IMT). Mauro said there will be significant WRC-27 agenda items around satellite, including proposed aggregate interference limits. She said WRC is typically split between IMT and satellite items, but WRC-23 discussions and agenda items skewed toward satellite. Tony Robinson, Avanti Communications chief-strategy and business development, said satellite over the past 10 years has transitioned from an expensive niche technology, "the connectivity of last resort," to being more mainstream. Yet regulators in some countries "still see it as an expensive thing that can be taxed" rather than a viable connectivity solution, he said. Using satellite to help close the digital divide will require more collaboration between private and public sectors, said Jorge Rodriguez Lopez, Hispasat head-presales and product management, pointing to Spain's subsidization of satellite connectivity and terminals to provide 100 Mbps service to the public at a cost of 35 euros ($38.47) per month. Such initiatives, however, might not work in more rural developing nations, he said. In those cases, instead of basic services such as connecting individual homes, the focus might need to be more on connectivity for select use cases like education and agriculture, he said. Mauro said that given different connectivity needs and different markets of different regions, there isn't going to be a single solution. She said governments must understand satellite operators “aren’t philanthrop[ists]” and are not going to operate when there’s not a viable business case. Discussing how satellite can compete when government policies favor fiber or mobile, Mauro said the revenues that licenses and spectrum access can bring to government coffers often end up influencing how movements think. Lopez said the proliferation of mega constellations is also giving different countries a perspective that satellite is a viable route to connectivity. Supplemental coverage from space for now is more of an additive service in developed markets than a viable communications service in developing nations lacking good terrestrial coverage, Robinson said.

Amazon's two prototype Kuiper satellites have optical communications payloads, and the company has conducted multiple demonstrations of the technology involving 100 Gbps links over 1,000 km distances, Amazon said Thursday. It said the tests ensure Kuiper will use optical inter-satellite links for its production satellites, set to launch in the first half of 2024. All Kuipers will include multiple optical terminals connecting multiple satellites at a time, establishing infrared laser cross-links that form a mesh network in space. Amazon said mesh networks will increase throughput and reduce latency across the constellation.

SpaceX, Dish Network and Globalstar are at odds over whether SpaceX's pending supplemental coverage from space application is acceptable for filing. In an FCC Space Bureau filing Tuesday, SpaceX again urged that the application be put on public notice (see 2311170060) and said Dish and Globalstar arguments that the commission's 60-day processing deadline doesn't apply to SpaceX's application are incorrect. September's satellite streamlining order clearly set timelines for all pending and future applications, it said. SpaceX said it can't assess interference with Dish's 2 GHz mobile satellite service because Dish has no such service for SpaceX to assess for possible interference. It said Globalstar is not entitled to exclusive use of the 1.6/2.4 GHz band. Globalstar said last month that SpaceX hasn't shown it can operate its second-generation constellation in the band without interfering with Globalstar operations. Dish said that along with SpaceX not showing it won't interfere with other 2 GHz operations, nothing in the satellite streamlining order mandates that SpaceX's application be put on public notice. While the order recommended timelines for accepting applications for filing, it didn't mandate them, Dish said.

Air New Zealand signed an agreement with SpaceX for Starlink-provided connectivity for its fleet, the airline said Tuesday. The carrier plans a trial of Starlink service on an ATR-made regional jet and a domestic jet in 2024 and roll out wider coverage in 2025.

Early supplemental coverage from space applicants should receive "careful consideration" by the FCC, as SCS is nascent technology with unknown and potentially unintended consequences, Lynk representatives told Commissioner Geoffrey Starks' office, according to a docket 23-65 filing Tuesday. With various entrants potentially using different spectrum and technology, it's critical to understand the impact of these entrants on existing license holders and the SCS ecosystem, it said. The company said it has concerns about grants of authority that go beyond the scope of the limited testing that was applied to it and AST SpaceMobile.

SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband appears to be successfully balancing capacity and demand, with median download performance in Q3 of 64.54 Mbps, a marginal decline quarter on quarter, Ookla said Monday. Starlink's U.S. performance continues to eclipse geostationary orbit satellite internet providers, it said. Starlink's performance also shows significant urban low earth orbit broadband demand, with close to 60% of Speedtest samples of Starlink performance recorded in urban locations in the U.S., it said. While Starlink's "Roam" services, which let users take Starlink with them, may skew the number of urban samples, "it’s clear that LEO satellite internet is seen as a viable option in many urban U.S. locations," Ookla said.

Skylo Technologies, which is partnering with Viasat on direct-to-device satellite service (see 2311160006) and German telco O2 Telefonica for provision of hybrid satellite/terrestrial IoT coverage (see 2309270017), signed a supplemental coverage from space agreement with Deutsche Telekom, the satellite operator said Wednesday. Skylo said Deutsche Telekom's early adopter program will give access to a limited number of users, with the companies through mid 2024 studying use cases that bundle Skylo satellite service with the telco's terrestrial network.

The Environmental Defense Fund anticipates a March launch of its MethaneSAT earth observation satellite, which will identify and quantify global methane emissions, the nonprofit group said in an FCC Space Bureau application Tuesday. MethaneSAT will focus on the oil, gas and agricultural industries, with philanthropic donations funding the non-geostationary orbit satellite. Its data will be made available for free to the public, EDF said. It's set for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission.