Dish calls out Elon Musk for tweets about Starlink and RVs

Dish Network sent a letter May 27 to SpaceX demanding that the company retract statements that it says could trigger interference with Dish satellite TV services. The letter came after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Starlink is available for RVs, campers and other large vehicle users but didn’t state that the service can’t be used on moving vehicles. Musk also tweeted that Starlink “does work on vehicles in motion, including planes, but not yet reliably.” The letter basically revolves around the need for Federal Communications Commission authority before SpaceX’s Starlink system may communicate with Earth stations in motion (ESIMs), “and the prohibition on any company engaging in such communications” in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band. According to Dish, the statements “actively encourage and solicit Starlink customers to break these rules.” “As Dish has explained, Starlink ESIMs may activate Starlink beams in areas where satellites would not otherwise have been active, threatening satellite television customers in the area,” Dish wrote. “We therefore ask that you immediately retract these statements and clarify that Starlink ESIM operations are not legal and no customer should try them, by using media of equal reach to the ones where these statements were made.”