FCC Can’t ‘Reasonably Refuse’ to Enforce Interference Limits on SpaceX, Says Dish
Dish Network’s satellite TV service, which uses 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12 GHz band, can be “jammed” if another user “transmits into the same frequencies in excess of certain power limits,” as SpaceX’s constellation does, said Dish’s final…
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opening brief Tuesday (docket 23-1001) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in its challenge of the FCC’s Dec. 1 second-generation SpaceX authorization order (see 2301060037). Avoiding interference is one of the most important congressional “directives” to the FCC, said Dish. The case is about whether the FCC “can reasonably refuse to comply with this directive by failing to evaluate SpaceX’s compliance with the power limits meant to protect satellite television,” it said. That’s even when the FCC “appears to agree” with Dish’s showing that SpaceX’s “on-the-record method for demonstrating compliance with the limits is not enough,” it said. The case is also about whether the agency “erred in allowing SpaceX to keep its ultimate showing of purported compliance with these limits outside the record of the proceeding” and unavailable to Dish “until after the agency made its decision,” it said. Dish also filed a final reply brief Tuesday in the D.C. Circuit, repeating many of the same arguments it asserted in the final opening brief. The FCC and SpaceX briefs at the D.C. Circuit serve only to confirm the "arbitrariness" of the commission's Dec. 1 order, said Dish's reply. The FCC and SpaceX try to "will away" the order’s "intractable problems" by "retroactively attempting to repair" it in their briefs, it said.