Satellite

The European Commission has approved plans for a €6 billion satellite internet system to compete with the likes of Amazon and SpaceX, despite previous objections from its internal watchdog. Brussels’ initiative to provide encrypted broadband coverage was twice rejected by the European Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board. The board, which vets impact assessments for proposals put forward by the commission, believed the scheme would waste money and compete with commercial services.

House lawmakers have teamed on two bipartisan bills that would "promote competition, innovation, national security, the interests of consumers, and American leadership in the thriving commercial satellite communications industry." The discussion drafts of the bills work toward modernizing the Federal Communications Commission’s satellite licensing rules and authorities under the Communications Act, with the goal of promoting responsible space management, incentivizing investment and innovation, an

The Air Force plans to enable and demonstrate a space internet that the military can use to connect and communicate via constellations of commercial spacecraft operating in various orbits. In a presolicitation released by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), officials confirmed intent to award two to five contracts worth up to $40 million each for “multi-band, multi-orbit communication experiments.” The work would span a couple years, and AFRL already has sights set on some use cases of interest.

Starlink faces many challenges in order to provide a robust commercial service, and ultimately to become financially sustainable so that potential customers can rely on it in the longer term. Some of the technical limitations of the Starlink service mean that it will never be possible to rely solely on Starlink to provide universal service outside the range of terrestrial broadband solutions.

SpaceX has abandoned a Starlink plan that Amazon objected to during a high-profile battle at the Federal Communications Commission in 2021, and wants to launch its second-generation broadband satellites starting in March 2022. But the dispute isn't over, as Amazon says that SpaceX's latest filing "raises a number of issues that call for analysis and a potential response" and asked the FCC for a month-long delay before comments are due.

It’s still very early in the ‘ballgame’ of broadband and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband players haven’t gotten up to bat much yet, but recent performance for SpaceX’s Starlink service reveals somewhat underwhelming momentum. Starlink has a total of 145K subscribers across the globe, according to company engineer Jessie Anderson. That’s up only 5K subscribers from November 2021, according to CNBC.

With the broadband gap laid bare by the events of 2020, 2021 saw a renewed focus on meeting the challenge once and for all.

Satellite internet is making headlines across the globe as Starlink continues to launch service in new countries and Viasat plans to acquire Inmarsat.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed revisions to its rules for spectrum sharing among non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service (NGSO FSS) systems. The proposed revisions would seek to facilitate the deployment of the new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite systems, promote competition, and make it easier for new competitors to enter the market.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a stir when he recently said that the US should “get rid of all” federal subsidies.