Details of Amazon Processing Round Rules Petition Get Opposition
Amazon's call for the FCC to update non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service license modification processing round policies (see 2007100023) has some general backing, but its specific proposals have none. That's per RM-11861 replies posted Wednesday. Viasat said the issues raised…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
point to the need for an omnibus NGSO FSS proceeding that also tackles the need to limit band-splitting events driven by mega constellations and to restrain the size of constellations. It argued against replacing the FCC's more holistic standard for assessing aggregate impact of a proposed modification with one that looks at particular contributors to predicted interference. Amazon's Kuiper said that current standard doesn't tell NGSO FSS operators how to evaluate a proposed modification impact, which is why the FCC should undertake a rulemaking based on its proposals. OneWeb said the record shows lack of support for Amazon's proposals, but there isn't backing for SpaceX's proposals unrelated to reviewing modification applications. It said the FCC should look further at the cumulative effects of modification applications. The petition "is just the latest in Amazon’s continuing efforts to bend ... well-crafted regulations to stifle competitors that filed timely applications in previous NGSO processing rounds," SpaceX said. Even operators that support a new look at the license modification processing round rules don't support Amazon's proposals, it said. A case-by-case evaluation of proposed modifications' interference impact gives satellite operators needed flexibility that Amazon's proposed approach lacks, Telesat said.