Small Wireless Warns of Big Interference and Roaming Risks of AST's SCS Plan
Small wireless interests are pushing back on plans by AST SpaceMobile, AT&T and Verizon to offer supplemental coverage from space service that doesn't reach the entire continental U.S. The requested CONUS coverage waivers could create interference risks for rural carriers and exclude them from SCS participation, the Competitive Carriers Association argued in its opposition to AST and the carriers' joint application. The group's filing, posted Wednesday (docket 25-201), said waiving the requirement that service cover all CONUS would force primary licensees to prove that it's causing them interference, instead of requiring the applicants to show how they will protect the primary service licensees.
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The Rural Wireless Association said the SCS service envisioned by AST, AT&T and Verizon "will disproportionately harm rural wireless carriers" via harmful interference. The group said it's concerned that nationwide wireless carriers will stop letting their customers roam on rural carrier networks and default to SCS service instead of terrestrial-based services.
Also in the docket, SpaceX criticized AST's orbital debris mitigation plan and said the FCC needs to verify that the company's satellites won't imperil other systems in low earth orbit before the agency authorizes further AST deployments. SpaceX also said AST should provide a "methodologically sound analysis" showing that it won't cause harmful adjacent-band and in-band interference. In addition, given claims that AST has made about the system being intended to support European sovereignty, it should clarify its foreign ownership and control, "including whether its application is more appropriately filed as a request for U.S. market access," SpaceX said.