Get the latest tech news

Navigating Starlink's FCC Paper Trail

Guest Post: What I learned when I figured out how to navigate FCC filings.

There is little engagement with the research community, and official pronouncements often lack detail — they’re clearly not the kind of company that takes people on factory tours to proudly show off how they make and run things. The rules of the game aren’t published anywhere, but the aims seem to be quite clear — as an established geostationary satellite provider fearing that SpaceX may be eating your lunch, your goal is to throw as many spanners into the works as you can, usually cleverly disguised as technical objections, to delay and suppress. Starlink’s Generation 1 FCC journey starts with SAT-LOA-20161115-00118 (and yes, that first number is the filing date) asking for 4,425 satellites in 83 orbital planes with five different inclinations at heights between 1,110 and 1,325km, which ended up being approved but never implemented.

Get the Android app