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18.10.2023 11:33, Pavel Kotov
SpaceX accused operator AT&T and the Rural Wireless Association (RWA) of waging a “desperate 11th-hour campaign to disrupt” testing of the second-generation Starlink communications satellite.
Image source: direct.starlink.com
This year, SpaceX plans to begin testing the Starlink service for mobile phones – they will start on December 1, if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves the application submitted on October 2. The second generation Starlink satellite will be deployed in orbit witheasy load for direct connection of unmodified mobile phones”. As part of the tests, data will be transmitted to a smartphone in the range allocated to the T-Mobile operator.
SpaceX’s requested Special Temporary Authorization (STA) for testing will give the company the opportunity “confirm the functionality of its point-to-point satellites and their ability to connect to mobile phones immediately after deployment, rather than waiting weeks for satellites to complete their ascent into orbit to ensure proper functioning.”.
The company’s initiative, however, met with opposition from AT&T and RWA, which filed complaints with the FCC. In May, the operator already brought to the attention of the regulator that SpaceX needed to provide more detailed technical information about its service and prove that its technology would not interfere with other networks. Now AT&T is not satisfied with the formal procedure – according to the operator, SpaceX should have sent the request not to the FCC, but to the Office of Engineering and Technology, which issues permission to conduct experiments. RWA shared AT&T’s position.
SpaceX, in turn, called on the FCC to quickly approve its application and said that “AT&T and RWA are making a number of unfounded procedural claims without offering any substantive grounds for rejecting the application.” It is noteworthy that AT&T is implementing a similar project with satellite provider AST SpaceMobile – the two companies recently reported making the first-ever 5G call from a regular phone via satellite.
