Dish Network: Next-Gen Starlink Dishes Risk Interference With Satellite TV

pcmag.com:

Dish Network’s ongoing feud with SpaceX could derail next-generation Starlink hardware. 

Last week, Dish Network told the FCC it should deny SpaceX’s application to operate next-gen Starlink dish equipment for cars, boats, and planes. The reason: The company claims the proposed Starlink hardware risks causing interference with Dish’s own satellite TV services. 

Specifically, Dish is demanding the FCC reject the application because the new dish hardware will use the 12GHz band for downloading purposes. According to the company’s 11-page letter(Opens in a new window) to the FCC, Dish is concerned the devices will feature “significantly narrower beams, which creates the possibility of beam overlap,” from satellite providers. 

Hence, a satellite dish from Dish network could be “exposed to significant impacts from multiple satellite beams,” the company claims.  

Dish adds: “An unlimited number of ESIMs [Earth station in motions] combined with SpaceX’s pending modification of its first-generation system to use smaller beams would substantially increase the chance of interference into Direct Broadcast Satellite.”

It’s not the first time Dish has feuded with SpaceX over Starlink being used on cars, boats, and planes. Last June, the satellite TV provider complained to the FCC about SpaceX quietly encouraging people to use Starlink dish equipment on moving vehicles when it didn’t have government clearance to do so. (To resolve the matter, the FCC granted SpaceX the license to operate existing Starlink hardware on moving vehicles.)

Dish has also opposed SpaceX’s Starlink development on various fronts, including over the 12GHz spectrum. Dish wants to use the radio band for a 5G cellular service, but SpaceX claims doing so will