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FCC unlocks spectrum to support advanced satellite services

135 points by impish9208

by Animats

3 subcomments

by idunnoman1222

1 subcomments

The KU band is already used by satellites, A tweet discussing what this actually means would be more useful than this fcc.gov page

by bigtones

2 subcomments

This is the US FTC. How are they able to boldly mandate what frequencies are used in space for orbiting satellites given their jurisdiction is scoped to the domestic USA? Would that not be the ITU's jurisdiction - FTC dont set communication rules for the entire galaxy.

by rkagerer

1 subcomments

Was this always in the works, or has recent 'competition' pushed them to speed up unlocking this bandwidth? (e.g. Apple's Emergency SOS, Starlink Direct to Cell, etc)

by whaleofatw2022

0 subcomment

by yieldcrv

0 subcomment

Nice, the CBRS spectrum and municipal auctions were a big success in opening up new markets
I like this narrower approach the FCC is taking

by rmac

4 subcomments

The amount of spectrum the US military "owns" in the United States is absurd and needs to be adjusted - and at this point the excuses for why they can't vacate are making them look geriatric
Yet another reminder. What happens when you have organizations that aren't beholden to outside pressure

0 subcomment

by forgot-im-old

3 subcomments

Starlink already uses these frequencies (17 GHz) for uplink (user to sat). Now they are also allowed for downlink.
Starlink user terminals are half duplex (Tx and Rx at different times) and so could easily support 17GHz DL in a new version. But the satellite is necessarily full duplex (propagation delays differ across users so sat needs to Tx and Rx at overlapping times). Starlink's satellites would seem unlikely to be able to handle their own tx self desense (self jamming) if they used these new frequencies.
Probably a win for Kuiper, but not Starlink.
Not surprising given the current administration opposes some of Starlink's "questionable" objectives. https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/1eu994l/mus...