Orbiting Mobile Plans Dial Up Interference Concerns

The FCC is going to need evidence there's no harmful interference, said University of Oklahoma professor Mohammed Atiquzzaman, who specializes in wireless and satellite networks. He said getting signals from standard mobile handsets to reach satellites hundreds of kilometers away in orbit is an engineering challenge. The FCC didn't comment.

AST faces petitions to deny its request for U.S. market access for a planned 243-satellite constellation (see 2011040003). Lynk a year ago announced a successful demonstration of sending a text message from a small satellite to an Android phone. Both companies promise service that supplements and partners with existing terrestrial mobile networks, providing service to fill in areas lacking terrestrial coverage. AST and Vodafone announced a partnership in December.

AST CEO Abel Avellan said in an interview that its first tranche of satellites should go live in early 2023. He said AST will begin offering service first in nations along the equator, with the U.S. to follow. Lynk expects to launch global commercial service early next year, the company emailed. It said it will jointly announce commerce service in individual countries with a partner mobile network operator in each country.

The 10-by-10-meter apertures on AST's satellite to launch this year will function "like an ear -- the bigger it is, the more you can listen," Avellan said. He said the next-generation satellites "will be significantly larger." Interference concerns raised at the FCC are "purely commercially motivated" by competitive concerns, he added.

Lynk said standard mobile phones aren't optimized for communicating with satellites hundreds of miles away, but they're capable of doing so through the use of lower-band frequencies and their link margin gain, a high-gain UHF antenna for the satellite and the proper mobile protocol. Avoiding harmful interference with terrestrial mobile signals is viable by using the same approach the mobile wireless industry uses to ensure adjacent ground-based cell towers don't interfere with one another, it said: They use the same spectrum, but there are rules on signal strength, and the same spectrum management approach can work for Lynk.

Satellite-based cellular has been discussed for years. One hurdle has been that relevant spectrum in the U.S. is carved up across a patchwork of partial economic areas and counties. Providing such service without causing interference is a challenge, said an industry lawyer. The lack of secondary market rules allowing satellite use of terrestrial spectrum is also a question mark, the lawyer said. CTIA, Verizon and T-Mobile, all of which opposed AST's market access request, didn't comment, nor did AT&T.

"What we are doing wouldn't have been possible five years ago," AST's Avellan said. He said declining launch costs, electronics miniaturization and virtualizing of infrastructure now enable satellite-based cellular service. Lynk said satellites recently became cheap and powerful enough to provide space-based mobile service.

The FCC should direct AST to clarify whether it will provide mobile satellite service (MSS) or other satellite services using leased terrestrial spectrum and put up a viable plan to access spectrum "in the likely event that its proposed satellite use of leased terrestrial spectrum is rejected," EchoStar told an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per an International Bureau filing Thursday. Alternately, the FCC could defer consideration of AST's proposed V-band fixed satellite service operations until a new processing round, or require clarification that those FSS operations will be on a noninterference, non-protected basis, it said. EchoStar said AST's proposed FSS system application is limited to feeder link communications with gateway earth stations at 37.5-42.5 GHz and 45.5-51.4 GHz, meaning it plans MSS use of leased terrestrial spectrum, but spectrum allocated for terrestrial use can't be used for MSS.

Asked whether it anticipates also facing regulatory opposition, Lynk said regulation "is always a critical challenge for satellite." The company said it "engaged in advance in an open and transparent dialogue with the FCC, the mobile network operators, and others to ensure that ... all parties are aware of what steps we’re taking, what our plans are moving forward," and how its system can be complementary to terrestrial networks. It said system demonstrations and third-party observers confirming no interference make it "confident in our ability to secure regulatory approval."