Elon Musk’s SpaceX hit back against Dish Network for its proposal to operate a high-powered 5G mobile service in the 12 GHz band, saying it will make Starlink internet ‘unusable for Americans.’
SpaceX filed a complaint with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, criticizing Dish for wanting to use part of the same Ku-band spectrum that Starlink and other satellite operators use to connect to terminals.
The company also stated that it will lead to US users experiencing ‘harmful interference’ 77 percent of the time, ‘resulting in full outages 74 percent of the time.’
David Goldman, SpaceX’s senior director of satellite policy, wrote in the FCC complaint, ‘this analysis [SpaceX’s testing in Las Vegas] verifies what should be intuitive — that a high-power terrestrial network would blow out anyone using the high-sensitivity equipment satellite consumers must use to receive signals that comply with Commission and international power restrictions on satellite downlink transmissions.’
‘As a result, vastly fewer Americans could be connected using next-generation satellite services, and those that remain would experience degraded service and regular network outages. We believe co-existence is possible. We want to protect our own satellite service.’
SpaceX launched around 2,700 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit and has more than 400,000 subscribers worldwide.
However, the firm hopes to have as many as 42,000 satellites in its mega constellation.
The space internet currently costs $110 a month with a $599 one-time equipment fee.
The Falcon 9 rocket, known as B1060, lit up its nine Merlin engines at 12:09 pm while on Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Falcon 9 rocket traveled to an orbit between 144 miles and 209 miles above Earth’s surface where the 53 Starlinks were released.
Friday’s mission also marked the 13th flight of the same Falcon 9 – the most SpaceX has reused a rocket.
This will lead to massive cost-cutting.
This is also part of Musk’s plan of colonizing Mars.
The plan made by Musk was that company’s massive Starship rockets will ferry humans to and from the Red Planet.
‘It’s the only thing that can carry the Starlink Two satellites,’ he said on a recent episode of Everyday Astronaut.
‘We’ve already produced the first, and we have on-site, the first Starlink Two and it’s seven meters long (23 feet).
‘[The] Falcon [9] has neither the volume nor the mass-to-orbit capability required for Starlink Two.
‘So even if we shrunk the Starlink Two down, the total upmass of Falcon is not nearly enough to do Starlink Two.’