SpaceX Accuses 'meme-stock' Rival Of 'misinformation' Over Starlink Signals Waiver

The competition to deliver satellite-based phone connections is getting nasty, with SpaceX accusing AST SpaceMobile of a misinformation campaign.

The spat pertains to efforts by SpaceX to get US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to ease out-of-band emission restrictions on signals, something that numerous telcos - including some AST SpaceMobile customers - aren't keen on.

In a letter [PDF] filed this week with FCC, SpaceX's VP of Satellite Policy, David Goldman, claims AST and its investors "continue their scorched-Earth campaign to hamstring competing direct-to-cellular operations," dismissing their efforts as "meme-stock."

The SpaceX letter also highlights the recent disastrous floods in the US following Hurricane Helene, and reckons AST is "stopping at nothing to slow progress" of rolling out supplemental coverage from satellites that would provide communications during natural disasters and support first responders.

The history to this? Elon Musk's space biz submitted a request to the FCC for a waiver concerning out-of-band emission limits on signal in 2022. SpaceX claims it needs this for Starlink satellites to be able to fully operate the direct-to-cell service it plans to offer with T-Mobile US.

Some telcos, however, contend that out-of-band emission limits are there to guard against interference with other services, and warn the waiver would allow Starlink's direct-to-cell satellites to operate at a signal strength that would risk interference with terrestrial cellphone signals.

Verizon and AT&T filed documents with the FCC in August asking it to deny SpaceX's request for a waiver for this reason. The matter is complicated because both these telcos have signed up with rival satellite operator AST SpaceMobile to provide supplemental coverage from space (SCS) for their respective subscribers.

SpaceX's angry missive follows a recent letter from a group of European telcos also urging the FCC to reject its request for a waiver on the grounds it could cause interference. That missive [PDF], dated September 30, states:

"While we admire the FCC's support for innovation in mobile services including its Supplemental Coverage from Space ("SCS") proceeding ... we would be gravely concerned if the FCC were to support requests from the satellite sector to allow any relaxation in the safeguards to protect licensed terrestrial mobile network operators and their users from harmful interference."

The telcos – including Orange, Telefónica, Vodafone and Liberty Global (parent company of Virgin Media O2) – insist that the FCC must reject any effort to relax its aggregate out-of-band-emission limit of -120 dBW/m2/MHz.

This "represents the bare minimum level of protection that mobile network operators require from spurious emissions ... if they are to have any assurance that they can continue to deliver the terrestrial service levels committed to in each market," the letter states.

This was the trigger for SpaceX's outburst, with Goldman writing: "Apparently not content with solely harming competition in America, AST is now taking its misinformation campaign overseas by recruiting its European investors and partners to parrot its talking points and harm competition there as well."

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AST SpaceMobile certainly lists Vodafone and Telefónica as operators that it has entered into agreements with regarding its satellite network.

"These AST supporters provide zero technical support for their opposition to SpaceX's out-of-band emissions waiver," Goldman continues in his letter to the FCC, dated October 2, 2024. He also says they have not offered any response to a technical analysis from SpaceX and T-Mobile claiming to show that the proposed out-of-band emission limit would protect adjacent-band terrestrial networks.

However, the letter from the European telcos maintains that AT&T demonstrated a relaxed out-of-band emissions limit would cause an 18 percent average reduction in network downlink throughput in certain portions of the cellular spectrum.

"In our view, this would represent a legal breach of the property rights of the licensed mobile terrestrial operator, and the basis for claiming damages," the letter states.

The problem is there are legitimate concerns over potential interference with terrestrial cellphone networks, yet these concerns are also being co-opted into efforts to nobble the competition, according to SpaceX.

"This really is about weaponizing the regulators, specifically the FCC, and both sides are playing," Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst Bill Ray told The Register.

"This makes it hard to establish the true depth of the interference issue, as neither side can be trusted to be entirely honest, and there are a number of unknown factors.

"In general, we roll out radio regulation cautiously, with high regard for potential interference, and then loosen the rules if everything works, but these systems require such a high level of investment that they want to know all the rules ahead of time."

AST SpaceMobile's orbiting hardware features much larger antennas, and so has no need for the increased transmission power SpaceX is asking for, "so this really is about Starlink lobbying the FCC to provide international rights, while the telcos lobby against," Ray said.

BlueBirds, AST SpaceMobile's first five commercial satellites, were successfully launched into low Earth orbit on September 12 – ironically atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket – after a number of delays.

We asked AST SpaceMobile and AT&T for comment since both are specifically named in SpaceX's letter alleging a misinformation campaign. ®