Legal Updates: Rival to Starlink Cites Supreme Court to Strengthen Position in FCC Debate
Friday, October 22, 2021 | Chimniii Desk
Key Points
These dishes connect with the satellites via the 12GHz band, and Starlink is in a battle with DISH Corporation and RS Access, LLC – the latter of which is attempting to open up the 12GHz spectrum for 5G multi-channel video and data delivery. Starlink's Spectrum Sharing with MVDDS Providers Preserves Michael Dell's RS AccessIn a document in response to SpaceX's David Goldman's comments, RS Access argues to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the agency's decision not to include new 12GHz rules in a rulemaking proposal is consistent with Supreme Court precedent. It continues by arguing that any attempt by the agency to restrict the scope of debate in an NPRM violates the "logical outgrowth" theory, with the purpose of a proposed rulemaking being solely to provide "fair" notice, as the Supreme Court determined in 2007. Due to the fact that Starlink's comments that prompted RS Access to reference the court are not available in the wireless telecommunications bureau's docket number 20-443, it is unclear what line of argument Elon Musk's satellite internet service is using in yet another FCC struggle. Instead, the surest way to promote rapid deployment of high- speed broadband would be to reject DISH's proposals, remove the MVDDS encumbrances that hamper next-generation satellite operators in the 12 GHz Band, and close the proceeding. SUPPLEMENT TO THE IMPORTANT SERVICE SHOW ULS identifier: 0008742312However, RS Access's CEO Noah Campbell believes the argument that a service in the 12GHz band lacks coverage is unjustified, given that RS Access has already released a list of sites where its products are operating.
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The Starlink satellite service operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) continues to battle to maintain the current rules governing the 12GHz frequency band. These laws control the sharing of spectrum by numerous companies, and Starlink employs satellites orbiting close to the Earth in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to deliver internet service to its subscribers via dishes. These dishes connect with the satellites via the 12GHz band, and Starlink is in a battle with DISH Corporation and RS Access, LLC – the latter of which is attempting to open up the 12GHz spectrum for 5G multi-channel video and data delivery.
Starlink's Spectrum Sharing with MVDDS Providers Preserves Michael Dell's RS Access
In a document in response to SpaceX's David Goldman's comments, RS Access argues to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the agency's decision not to include new 12GHz rules in a rulemaking proposal is consistent with Supreme Court precedent.
Starlink, RS Access, and DISH are among the companies giving comments and opinions on whether the 12GHz spectrum can be shared fairly by satellite internet and MVDDS firms. Both DISH and RS Access contend that they can share the 12Gz spectrum, with Starlink stating that its future service plans contradict the assumptions of a critical analysis presented to the Commission earlier this year by RS Access.
This analysis refuted earlier claims by the MVDDS camp that terrestrial and satellite users could not coexist in the 12GHz band and urged the FCC to fully exclude satellite operators from the spectrum.
Starlink's rapid service expansion, on the other hand, breathed new life into the Commission's rulemaking procedures. As a result, the agency decided to open the debate and invite response from interested parties.
Starlink appears to be claiming today that the FCC should have underlined which rules it intended to adopt in its January Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). This was revealed in a filing by RS Access earlier this week, in which the filer argued that the agency was not required to narrow any rules when it published the NPRM.
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With Starlink requesting greater certainty, RS Access argues that the FCC should keep the rulemaking process as open as possible, since any narrowing would violate the NPRM process, which requires new rules to be the result of multiparty debate.
It continues by arguing that any attempt by the agency to restrict the scope of debate in an NPRM violates the "logical outgrowth" theory, with the purpose of a proposed rulemaking being solely to provide "fair" notice, as the Supreme Court determined in 2007.
Due to the fact that Starlink's comments that prompted RS Access to reference the court are not available in the wireless telecommunications bureau's docket number 20-443, it is unclear what line of argument Elon Musk's satellite internet service is using in yet another FCC struggle. Starlink, a SpaceX company, is collaborating with RS Access and DISH on numerous fronts, including the launch of thousands of new satellites for improved connection and the development of a new user terminal to streamline mass production.
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Pic: The download rates for Cibola Wireless's 5G-based MVDDS service are depicted in this image from the company's website. Cibola Wireless
Starlink has amassed thousands of consumers since it began offering beta service to users, with more awaiting delivery of their equipment. The service is one of the ways in which SpaceX, which is primarily a provider of aerospace transportation services, intends to fund the development of one of the world's largest rockets, nicknamed Starship.
The internet network intends to reach rural and underserved areas of the United States by shipping millions of user dishes. Thus, the 12GHz band utilised by SpaceX's dishes to upload data to its satellites is critical for the company's internet service, as well as for rivals such as DISH, which owns the spectrum.
As a result, SpaceX's satellite policy lead David Goldman restated his demand earlier this month that MVDDS providers be completely removed from the 12GHz spectrum. This represented a dramatic turnaround in stance for Starlink, which had previously argued in a preceding FCC case that satellite providers should not be excluded from the spectrum under any new restrictions.
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Pic: A SpaceX document indicating that Google and others approve the use of the 12GHz frequency for satellite internet. SpaceX's Response to the Infrastructure Coalition (10-13-2021). WT-20-443 contains a pdf file.
Mr. Goldman begins his letter with a scathing assessment of the MVDDS licensees' failure to promptly deploy their services in the spectrum that Starlink is currently using to deliver internet overage.
The SpaceX executive remarked on the following:
Most recently, DISH and the coalition it funds made the bizarre claim that supporting its spectrum-grab at the expense of operators that are already deploying broadband infrastructure to otherwise unserved Americans is somehow consistent with Congressional efforts to extend more broadband to unserved areas. Yet the opposite is obviously true—giving more rights to those like DISH that have failed to deliver for over a decade on empty promises would run counter to every effort to actually connect Americans. Instead, the surest way to promote rapid deployment of high- speed broadband would be to reject DISH’s proposals, remove the MVDDS encumbrances that hamper next-generation satellite operators in the 12 GHz Band, and close the proceeding.
He also expressed support for using the 12GHz frequency for satellite internet from more than forty entities, including Native American tribes, Google, and Microsoft.
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Pic: According to a 2019 FCC United Licensing System (ULS) filing, RS Access had implemented its MVDDS service in the following places. SUPPLEMENT TO THE IMPORTANT SERVICE SHOW ULS identifier: 0008742312
However, RS Access's CEO Noah Campbell believes the argument that a service in the 12GHz band lacks coverage is unjustified, given that RS Access has already released a list of sites where its products are operating.
In 2019, the firm provided the list, which details its objectives and the regions that already use the 12GHz band for MVDDS. This additional update stated the following:
RSA/MDS has met and exceeded the Commission’s substantial service obligation, including by: (1) deploying and providing service to customers over at least four separate transmitting locations for every million people in each geographic license area; or (2) deploying a large-scale broadband Internet service offering that reaches more than 900,000 people (or approximately 50 percent of the population) in the Albuquerque geographic license area.
Additionally, it seeks to give Internet coverage to subscribers, as previously stated in the update:
RSA/MDS has developed a point-to-multipoint offering that not only can provide connectivity among the dispersed sites of customers in niche and underserved markets, but also can support two-way connectivity to the Internet using an unlicensed, return-link path.