Despite Opposition and Expert Warnings, FCC Votes to Accelerate Satellite Application Processing

By B.N. Frank

High-speed internet connections can be achieved via safer and more secure methods than wireless-radiation emitting satellites. In fact, experts have been warning for years that launching thousands more satellites into an already overcrowded space will create more problems including a higher risk of human fatalities (see 1, 2). Starlink satellites specifically have made headlines for swerving every 10 minutes to avoid collision, falling from orbit and burning, threatening lives from falling satellite debris, and locking people out of their accounts.

Unfortunately, pending U.S. bills would allow the launching of hundreds of thousands more satellites with NO environmental review and the increasingly unpopular Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (see 1, 2) just made it easier for them to be launched more quickly.

From Inside Towers:

FCC to Soon Speed Satellite and Earth Station Application Processing

UPDATE The FCC recently voted to expedite processing of satellite and earth station applications, Inside Towers reported. That’s in light of what it calls “an unprecedented” number of applications arriving to the agency proposing new systems and services.

The Commission has established timeframes for placing satellite and earth station applications on public notice. It also eliminated a procedural rule that prevents consideration of requests for waiver of the International Table of Frequency Allocations.

The Commission voted to remove the prohibition on licensed-but-unbuilt systems for non-geostationary orbit operators. Additionally, the Commission created a new, streamlined processing framework for earth station operators to add satellite points of communication under certain circumstances.

The changes go into effect on January 5, 2024. Federal Register publication triggered that date.

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief