Telcos fight for access to airwaves on the ground and in space

The battle in orbit over the airwaves isn’t quite Star Wars just yet, but it could become an important part of the future of mobile access to the internet.

Terrestrial networks are a critical part of today’s cell-phone infrastructure, and as more space-based networks launch into orbit, new concerns and conflicts are sprouting up around their potential to interfere with existing on-the-ground networks.

In May, AT&T filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission seeking to block a proposal from T-Mobile and Starlink that would provide satellite service directly to smartphone devices.

AT&T claimed that Starlink and T-Mobile’s satellite direct-to-phone network could interfere with terrestrial wireless services, like AT&T’s on the PCS C block spectrum, which is adjacent to the one that Starlink has been planning to use. SpaceX has already announced plans to test the network with T-Mobile later this year, with text messaging slated to be the first available service before voice and internet coverage debut.

“Terrestrial services are inherently more robust than limited SCS [supplemental coverage from space] service offerings. Allowing SCS operations to interfere with or replace existing co-channel terrestrial services would thus degrade service quality and reliability for American consumers and contravene the public interest,” AT&T said in the filing.

AT&T, meanwhile, is also pursuing satellite-to-phone networks.

AT&T has partnered with AST SpaceMobile to provide satellite direct-to-device coverage. AT&T is leasing its C Block spectrum, which is next to the network Starlink was hoping to use, to AST SpaceMobile to develop its network. According to AT&T, it “will not transmit in areas covered by AT&T’s terrestrial cellular network,” Fierce Wireless reported.

AT&T insisted SpaceX should have to do more to convince the FCC that its service wouldn’t interfere with AT&T’s existing service on the ground.

“More broadly, the applicants’ technical showings are woefully insufficient regarding the risk of harmful interference posed by their planned SCS deployments,” AT&T said in the filing. “SpaceX and T-Mobile’s applications fall far short of meeting the threshold for waiver and cannot be granted in their current state.”

In May, the FCC rejected a planned Dish mobile 5G network that would've operated in the same band as Starlink's service, something Starlink claimed could've degraded its own service.