SpaceX: Starlink Risks Becoming 'Unusable' If Dish Gets 12GHz Spectrum
A plan from Dish Network to use the 12GHz radio spectrum for the company’s 5G network risks degrading the Starlink satellite internet service across the US, according to SpaceX.
“If Dish’s lobbying efforts succeed, 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, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans,” SpaceX said on the official Starlink website on Tuesday.
The company made the statement(Opens in a new window) as both SpaceX and a coalition of companies, including Dish Network, are battling for regulatory access to the 12GHz spectrum. SpaceX currently uses the 12GHz band and other frequencies to help it transmit data to Starlink, which can receive high-speed internet from satellites in orbit.
However, Dish Network has been lobbying the FCC for access to the 12GHz band to run a 5G cellular network on the ground. The regulatory battle has been grinding away in filings made with the FCC, which will decide the matter. But on Tuesday, SpaceX told the FCC opening the 12GHz spectrum to wireless network providers such as Dish Network represents a direct threat to Starlink’s usability.
“SpaceX submits an extensive technical analysis showing that mobile services envisioned by Dish and RS Access would in fact cause massive disruptions to uses of next-generation satellite services,” the company wrote(Opens in a new window) in a letter to the FCC on the same day.
The letter goes on to say a 5G cellular network using the 12GHz band would “blow out” and easily interfere with a consumer’s Starlink access. This is because the Starlink dishes themselves are highly sensitive to radio spectrum operating in the same band. SpaceX’s
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