SpaceX Set to Launch Cellular Starlink Service This Fall
Innovative Satellite-Based Network to Revolutionize Global Connectivity
With FCC certification still waiting, SpaceX intends to introduce its Starlink phone system this autumn. In a file on the commission’s new guidelines on providing satellite connectivity to US carriers, sometimes known as “supplemental coverage from space,” the business disclosed the intended launch date.
“SpaceX looks forward to launching commercial direct-to — cellular service in the United States this fall and supports almost all of the Commission’s recent SCS Order,” the firm said.
A helpful approach to service customers in cellular dead zones, the filing also reveals more on SpaceX’s long-term objectives for the “direct to cell” Starlink system, which would beam internet data to unmodified handsets on the ground.
“Although SpaceX now intends to provide text, voice, and web browsing through its supplemental coverage network, future innovations may permit even more robust supplemental coverage service and enhanced features,” the firm said. “While this enhanced source of connectivity where those networks do not exist will not replace terrestrial mobile networks, it will help.”
Still, SpaceX notes one flaw in the FCC’s present approach for providing satellite access to phones. Specifically the “one-size-fits-all aggregate out-of-band power flux-density,” the company’s filings ask the Commission to relax the overall restriction on radio frequencies for cellular satellites.
Rather, SpaceX supports more precise “band-specific limits” to replace the one-size-fits-all constraint thereby enabling the firm to increase the reach and dependability of the upcoming cellular Starlink system.
“An across-the-board, aggregate out-of-band limit, by contrast, will sadly undercut the goal of providing robust coverage during emergencies,” the business said. The same restriction may also stop SpaceX from creating further breakthroughs based on cellular Starlink technology.
Conclusion
Inreview even if operators could provide robust coverage under the aggregate PFD limit in the SCS Order, meeting such a restrictive limit would require satellite operators either to significantly suppress their signals to meet the limit, or to reduce network coverage and capacity.
