Omnispace says it’s experiencing interference from direct-to-device payloads on recently launched SpaceX Starlink satellites. Experts say the allegations offer an early test of new FCC regulations about satellite-to-smartphone services.
Omnispace VP of Strategy George Giagtzoglou said during a panel at the International Telecoms Week conference last week his company now has “empirical evidence” of increased noise in S-band from Starlink satellites that have payloads operating on similar frequencies. “We are actually seeing, with those satellites in operation, empirical evidence,” he said. “You see the noise floor on our satellites increase to the degree that services cannot be provided,” reports SpaceNews.
After launching initial Starlink satellites with experimental direct-to-device payloads, SpaceX has ramped up satellite deployment with payloads intended to communicate directly with unmodified mobile phones. Two Falcon 9 launches from California on May 10 and May 14, each carried 13 satellites with direct-to-device payloads, part of 20 Starlink satellites launched overall on each mission.
Omnispace has been among the companies critical of SpaceX’s plans to partner with T-Mobile US (NASDAQ: TMUS) to provide direct-to-device services using terrestrial T-Mobile spectrum in the same band as Omnispace’s mobile satellite services (MSS) assignment from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Omnispace has plans for a constellation of more than 600 satellites but currently only operates a few experimental satellites in low and medium Earth orbits, notes SpaceNews.
“There are rules about this. We have rights from the ITU to operate our satellites in our band, in our orbits,” Giagtzoglou said. “It’s fine to sort of move fast and break things, but at some point, things will get shut down when they interfere with regulations.”
SpaceX has complained to Omnispace directly and the FCC about Omnispace for being unwilling to discuss system coordination. A May 8 letter from SpaceX VP of Policy David Goldman to Mindel De La Torre, chief regulatory and international strategy officer at Omnispace, stated that Omnispace approached SpaceX in December 2023 about coordination and SpaceX agreed, but Omnispace didn’t follow up despite several requests by SpaceX to do so.
Giagtzoglou reiterated past assertions by SpaceX that the company’s full direct-to-cell constellation would not result in harmful interference with Omnispace.
That reported interference could become a test of new FCC regulations adopted in March about direct-to-device satellite services. Called Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS), they treat those services as secondary to primary frequency allocations, like Omnispace’s MSS assignment, Inside Towers reported.
Omnispace said at the time it was encouraged by the FCC’s decision to make SCS a secondary service but remained concerned about potential interference from Starlink direct-to-device payloads.
Despite the interference concerns, Giagtzoglou and others on the panel remained optimistic about the prospects of direct-to-device satellite services for mobile handsets as well as IoT devices. “The changes that we’re looking at here are substantial and revolutionary for the satellite industry,” he said.
Those opportunities, panelists said, range from helping mobile network operators fill dead zones to enabling new applications, like vehicle telematics. Many of those applications will involve working with mobile network operators.
“Nobody knows those markets better than the carriers,” said Francis O’Flaherty, chief operating officer and managing director of Rivada Space Networks. “Being able to offer them a service that can expand their markets and offer them new revenue opportunities is phenomenal,” reports SpaceNews.
Lynk is deploying a satellite constellation to provide direct-to-device messaging services and partnered with eight operators in seven countries. Lynk Chief Commercial Officer Dan Dooley said, “You don’t know it’s space-based. You don’t necessarily care,” he said of the services his company offers. “It is a very frictionless way to participate in a trillion-dollar business.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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