October 3, 2024 Seven European cellular operators have issued negative comments on SpaceX’s plans to use its Starlink broadband satellites to provide ‘Direct-to-Cellular’ (D2C) services to consumers. Seven companies – including Vodafone, Liberty Global, Orange, PPF Telecom, Telefonica, Telenor and United Group – have told the FCC they’ll sue if the Commission loosens its rules for SpaceX’s cellular Starlink. “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 companies wrote. The signatories are combined in objecting to Starlink’s planned use of the Out-of-Band-Emission (OOBE) limit of -120 dBW/m2/Mhz as operations above this limit would harm existing transmissions. The European telcos join other companies, including AT&T and Verizon, that claim SpaceX’s cellular Starlink system risks creating radio interference if the technology can exceed the emission limits. But in their September 30th letter to the FCC, the European carriers took it a step further by raising the spectre of waging a legal battle. “Any relaxation that degrades the utility of spectrum that mobile operators have licensed from their respective national authorities, and which would undermine service quality and increase deployment costs, would be legal grounds for claiming damages,” the companies added. Without an FCC waiver, SpaceX has warned the FCC that its cellular Starlink system for phones will struggle to efficiently beam real-time voice and video calls. “That means Americans will continue to have no option for reliable, real-time communications in these (emergency) circumstances —undermining years of technical innovation and Commission efforts to bring these services to people and first responders as soon as possible,” the company told the FCC. Starlink is understood to be already carrying out tests designed to prove with actual data that does not interfere or degrade services. Related posts: Register We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.