FCC Poised to Settle Contentious SpaceX-Dish Network Spectrum Spat
The FCC is preparing to settle a heated dispute between SpaceX and Dish Network over the 12GHz radio spectrum, which is used to power Starlink.
Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced this week that the agency will resolve the matter in a vote during next month’s commission meeting.
“The commission will vote on an order that would preserve the 12.2-12.7GHz band as a home for next-generation satellite broadband operations by rejecting proposals to introduce ubiquitous, high-power mobile operations,” she said in a statement(Opens in a new window).
The statement suggests Rosenworcel is siding with SpaceX in the dispute, but she adds: “At the same time, we propose further investigation of expanded terrestrial fixed use or unlicensed use in this 500 megahertz band.” So the FCC could reopen the 12GHz band, pending further study.
In 2021, the FCC started proceedings to open up the 12.2 to 12.7GHz band to power mobile, ground-based services, even though the spectrum was reserved for satellite providers. Since then, SpaceX has called on the FCC to protect the spectrum for Starlink, which uses the 12GHz band to facilitate high-speed downloads to customers on the ground.
In contrast, Dish Network has been lobbying the FCC to let it use the spectrum for its 5G cellular network on the ground. Dish argues that Starlink and its own 5G cellular network can coexist, but SpaceX disagrees. In June, SpaceX publicly warned that Starlink risked becoming “unusable” if Dish's 12GHz lobbying effort succeeded.
“Our study shows that Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time,” SpaceX warned at the time. The dispute sparked tens of thousands of Starlink
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