FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants to see more competition among communications satellites in space, according to FedScoop. “Every communications market that has competition is stronger. We see lower prices and more innovation, and honestly, space should be no exception,” she said at the Global Aerospace Summit last week.
The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX Starlink has launched 6,350 communications satellites offering high-speed internet into low-Earth orbit as of August. The company says 6,290 are operational. It plans to have a total of nearly 12,000 in its constellation.
Speaking specifically of the Starlink satellite broadband constellation, Rosenworcel said, “we do have one player that’s almost two-thirds of the satellites that are in space right now, and has a very high portion of internet traffic. And the way I see it is, our economy doesn’t benefit from monopolies.”
“We’ve got to invite many more space actors, in many more countries, to develop conservation and innovations in space,” the FCC Chairwoman said. To do that, the agency rolled out the Transparency Initiative.
The initiative is one of the projects of the agency’s new Space Bureau, formed in April 2023. The goal is to provide interested parties with user-friendly information and guidance regarding the Commission’s space station and earth station application and authorization procedures. The initiative covers a variety of topics, including application completeness, orbital debris requirements, and inter-bureau and inter-agency coordination, according to the Commission’s website.
“We recognize that a lot of the new companies working in space are not familiar with processes at the FCC,” Rosenworcel said, according to FedScoop. “Satellite systems are something they want to invest in, but we’ve got to start doing a lot of outreach, explaining what it is we do and how applications get filed with us.”
Rosenworcel explained: “I think outreach has really become a part of our ongoing effort here, because we know there’s going to be a whole bunch of new players in the space economy and we want to invite them in to talk to us and learn about our process. My hope is that we can evolve our process over time so it works better, so we can help foster more competition.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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