New information collection requirements created by FCC streamlining of rules for satellite services take effect Monday, says that day’s Federal Register. The rules involved were connected with an optional, extended buildout period for earth station licensees. Information collection requirements connected with orbital debris mitigation rules take effect Oct. 20, Monday’s FR says.
Tariff classification rulings
Opposition to petitions for reconsideration of FCC FY 2021 regulatory fees are due Oct. 4, replies Oct. 12, in docket 21-190, said Friday’s Federal Register. The recon petitions are from Telesat Canada, SpaceX, Kepler Communications and WorldVu Satellites.
Requiring a more stringent collision probability threshold is a “reasonable alternative metric” that's preferable to an aggregate risk framework for regulating satellite constellations, said Amazon-owned Kuiper Systems in a letter posted Thursday in docket 18-313. The higher threshold stems from comments by NASA, the letter said. Amazon will “typically execute maneuvers when the risk exceeds a 1 in 100,000 chance that a collision will occur, a significantly higher safety threshold as compared to the industry practice of maneuvering when risk exceeds 1 in 10,000,” the letter said. The FCC should “adhere to the longstanding practice of assessing collision risk on a per-satellite basis, and to continue to work with other federal, industry, and academic stakeholders on a more stringent per-satellite large object collision risk metric,” said the letter.
Comments are due Sept. 30, replies Oct. 10, in docket is 19-348 on an FCC Wireless Bureau notice seeking comment on industry stakeholders to form a search committee to select a 3.45 GHz reimbursement clearinghouse, says Wednesday's Federal Register.
Amazon's latest criticism of SpaceX and its pending modification of its second-generation constellation (see 2109080056) comes as Amazon still shows "no sign of progress on [its]own long-rumored satellite system," SpaceX told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. It said Amazon hasn't pointed to any rule prohibiting SpaceX from providing the FCC with additional information about an alternative configuration for its system, despite Amazon's "theatrics." Amazon didn't comment Friday. Backing Amazon Kuiper's criticisms of the SpaceX pending modification, Viasat said Friday SpaceX is trying "to deflect attention from its own failures" with its claims of others trying to forestall competition via the regulatory process. It said the FCC in 2003 updated its rules to prevent satellite operators from submitting applications that include multiple system proposals.
Expressing concern about interference to its mobile satellite service from inter-satellite links (ISL), Globalstar said in docket 13-115 Friday that FCC experimental licensing procedures are an efficient way of accommodating the few launch vehicle/satellite links that seem likely for the L band, and opposed L-band allocation for ISLs. TechFreedom said the growth of the commercial space industry needs protection of current space spectrum allocations and asked the agency to allocate more spectrum where possible for space uses.
BlackSky Global's transfer of control to Osprey Technology Acquisition was completed, the remote sensing company told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. The special purpose acquisition deal was announced in February (see 2103220003).
OneWeb and Hughes signed a distribution agreement for enterprise services in the U.S. and a pact for distribution of services to businesses, government, telcos and ISPs across India, Hughes said Thursday. It said it and OneWeb plan to broaden distribution globally, with Hughes offering OneWeb's connectivity. Hughes President Pradman Kaul said OneWeb will help it meet India's "tremendous backhaul and broadband demand." Hughes said the two tested real-time seamless switching between OneWeb's low earth orbit constellation and Hughes' Jupiter 2 geostationary satellite in August. Hughes is an investor in OneWeb (see 2101150070).
The second-generation of OneWeb's low earth orbit broadband constellation could come with such features as lower latency and thermal imaging capabilities, OneWeb Executive Chairman Shravin Bharti Mittal said Wednesday at Satellite 2021. Appearing via livestream, Mittal said the company raised more funding than was needed for its first-gen constellation, giving it a cushion to allow it to start planning work on the second-gen. He said the first-gen constellation should provide constant coverage of northern latitudes including Alaska, Greenland and northern Russia within 60 to 90 days. He said all 648 planned satellites should be in orbit and providing global coverage by May or June 2022. Mittal and OneWeb said Wednesday the company signed an agreement with AT&T for the telco to use OneWeb capacity to improve remote coverage for businesses. Eutelsat said Wednesday it completed its $550 million OneWeb investment announced in April (see 2104270055).
SpaceX's playbook is to concede nothing, ignore rules when it can, "and when all else fails, malign those that invoke them," Amazon's Kuiper told the FCC International Bureau Wednesday. This repeats arguments against SpaceX's pending modification for its proposed second-generation satellite constellation. Citing SpaceX claims Kuiper is engaging in regulatory arbitrage (see 2109020003), it said SpaceX's "overheated response to an uncontroversial argument is a predictable specimen of SpaceX’s advocacy." It said SpaceX's claims of regulatory arbitrage by Amazon are "shopworn from overuse" and hypocritical since SpaceX "works tirelessly to ensure that everyone else plays by the rules that it itself rebuffs." SpaceX didn't comment.