Satellite

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is expected to play a role in the Biden administration’s $42 billion program to bring high-speed internet to every American home, as Washington comes up against some hard math in its effort to build networks reaching the most remote corners of the nation. The growing discussion of using Starlink to fill in coverage gaps is an acknowledgment of just how expensive and challenging it would be to run new internet cables up every mountain and down every valley nationwide.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology opened a new docket seeking comment on ways to potentially expand Federal access to non-Federal—including commercial—satellite services. In recent years, the commercial satellite industry has undergone tremendous growth and innovation. Federal government agencies have increasingly sought to meet their satellite communications needs by using commercial satellite services.

An organization called the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America submitted a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to use its official powers to go after Elon Musk, based on their view that he is not doing enough to help Ukraine. Their filing asks the FCC to require Musk to step down from Starlink, to stop processing Starlink applications altogether, and ultimately to revoke SpaceX’s FCC licenses.

What does future demand for broadband speed and usage mean for last mile technologies? The fastest broadband technology today is fiber, and the most common fiber technology is passive optical network (PON), which brings broadband to local clusters of customers.

On battlefields from Ukraine to Sudan, Starlink provides immediate and largely secure access to the internet. Besides solving the age-old problem of effective communications between troops and their commanders, Starlink provides a way to control drones and other advanced technologies that have become a critical part of modern warfare.

Starlink's mobile ambitions were dealt at least a temporary blow when the Federal Communications Commission dismissed SpaceX's application to use several spectrum bands for mobile service. SpaceX is seeking approval to use up to 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites with spectrum in the 1.6 GHz, 2 GHz, and 2.4 GHz bands. SpaceX could still end up getting what it wants but will have to go through new rulemaking processes in which the FCC will evaluate whether the spectrum bands can handle the system without affecting existing users.

SpaceX’s Starlink touts its high-speed internet as “available almost anywhere on Earth.” In the real world, its reach extends to countries where Elon Musk’s satellite-enabled service has no agreement to operate, including territories ruled by repressive regimes. There are wide-spanning examples of Starlink kits being traded and activated illegally.

U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act. This legislation would: 

Elon Musk recently blasted the federal government’s decision to deny a nearly billion-dollar subsidy for rural connectivity that had been previously awarded to his satellite broadband company, Starlink. No matter what you think about him, Musk’s outburst points to an uncomfortable reality: new technologies are rendering America’s policy for promoting and subsidizing broadband telecommunications outdated and counterproductive.

On March 18, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel delivered remarks at the 25th annual Satellite Industry Association Leadership Dinner. In her remarks, Rosenworcel highlighted recent efforts by the FCC Space Bureau, as well as the Commission's recent vote to create a spectrum framework for supplemental coverage from space. "It is one small and meaningful step toward the Single Network Future," she added. "In the Single Network Future, we will connect everyone, everywhere. But to do it we can’t limit ourselves to using only one technology.