SES and SpaceX Jousting Over EPFD Change Proposal
As SES continues to lobby the FCC against letting non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites operate under less restrictive power limits, SpaceX is pushing back, according to dueling filings posted Tuesday in docket 25-157.
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The existing equivalent power flux density (EPFD) limits play a big role in safeguarding geostationary operations globally from unacceptable interference in the Ku and Ka bands, SES officials told FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty's office last week. The EPFD framework also gives NGSO systems regulatory certainty, so they don't have to coordinate with geostationary orbit networks, SES said. The company added that the growth of NGSO systems under the current framework makes it tough to see how the EPFD limits are overly protective of GSOs.
SpaceX countered, saying SES' argument "is consistent with decades of unfounded assertions from GSOs that any changes to these rules will result in catastrophe." While SES pretends that the changed protection criteria would mean that every NGSO system will operate right up to the thresholds of the protection criteria, "this is not how these protection criteria work in practice." Additionally, SpaceX said a Telecomm Strategies technical study submitted by DirecTV is flawed.
A change to the existing EPFD framework is widely expected (see 2511250048).