The Federal Communications Commission amended its policy on spectrum sharing among non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems.
In a Federal Register notice posted Tuesday, FCC said the changes were made to regulate the growing number of satellite and NGSO FSS systems launched into space.
The agency noted that it has received an unprecedented number of lead and competing applications for commercial communication systems to be launched into orbit. NGSO FSS technology owners are required to abide by spectrum sharing rules and coordinate with each other in terms of using commonly authorized frequencies—otherwise, a spectrum-splitting procedure would take effect.
In the new ruling, FCC limits the spectrum-splitting threshold to systems that received approval in the same processing round, before the sunset period. The policy also reinforces coordination and mutual protection between systems despite obtaining approval in different processing periods.
The amendments were based on the comments received from the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking, which was issued in Dec. 2021.