OneWeb Phased LEO Plans See Criticisms
OneWeb's proposed amendment to its U.S. market access grant (see 2101130002) is facing some pushback from other satellite operators. OneWeb's plans for a complex multistage rollout continues its general effort "to push the burden of coordination completely to other operators…
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despite the harm this burden shifting does to those operators’ customers," SpaceX told the FCC International Bureau this week. It said any FCC consideration of the application needs to hold off until OneWeb provides necessary information missing in its application, such as how the two phases would interact and an updated and complete analysis of the interference its proposed modification would cause to other non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) systems. Amazon's Kuiper said the FCC typically would look at plans like OneWeb's -- adding 6,372 satellites in Phase 2 -- as a newly filed application and handle it as part of the 2020 processing round instead of the 2016 processing round. The phased rollout is designed to avoid that issue and keep its 2016 processing round status for its already authorized satellites, and the FCC should clarify the processing round status of OneWeb's phased modifications, and put the same rules and conditions on it that it imposed on other NGSO fixed satellite service licensees, it said. SES/O3b urged the FCC to require OneWeb to submit materials confirming its NGSO system will comply with ITU equivalent powerflux density limits to ensure that geostationary orbit satellite networks and their customers get interference protection. "There are limits to the extent to which LEO can be populated in a safe and sustainable manner," Viasat said, asking the FCC to limit the aggregate collision risk of the expanded OneWeb constellation. Viasat also said the agency should ensure any expansion of OneWeb's presence in space doesn't undermine low earth orbit satellite operations' sustainability or limit the ability of other satellite operators to share spectrum.