A big impediment to safe operations in orbit is the difficulty of getting anyone on the line about an impending near-miss, satellite operators said in an Aerospace Corp. webinar Wednesday. Communication, particularly with Chinese satellite operators, "is getting better," but needs further improvement, said Ryan Shepperd, Iridium's lead engineer for collision assessment and avoidance. The space sustainability event also included discussions about ways to better separate satellites from one another as orbits become increasingly congested.
The space industry has good communication channels with the U.S. government, but the efficacy of discussions among its agencies about space policy and regulation are less clear, space experts said Tuesday at a seminar in Washington organized by ForumGlobal. Tahara Dawkins, Astroscale's policy director, called for one set of rules across agencies, noting that it’s unclear if, for example, the FCC is talking with NOAA when they craft their regulations. Commercial Space Federation (CSF) Executive Director Alicia Brown added that there must be greater efforts to avoid regulatory conflicts and duplication in areas like payload reviews.
The FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) rules framework, adopted in 2024 (see 2403140050), tackled critical issues but is ready for an update, SpaceX Vice President of Satellite Policy David Goldman said Monday at a seminar in Washington organized by ForumGlobal. Also discussed at the event was use of terrestrial versus satellite spectrum for direct-to-device (D2D) service.
Paramount Skydance announced a hostile takeover bid Monday to buy WBD, offering $30 each for all outstanding shares of the company. The move follows the announcement that Netflix struck an $82.7 billion deal last week to purchase WBD (see 2512050046). One analyst said he sees President Donald Trump's heavy involvement in the fight over WBD as an advantage for Paramount over Netflix.
California’s continuing interest in VoIP regulation is a concern, and the lack of FCC preemption of state VoIP oversight is proving to be a problem, speakers said Wednesday at a vCon conference about AI and telecom issues. Also at the event, Ecommerce Innovation Alliance (EIA) President David Carter said the e-commerce industry, faced with rocketing amounts of “shakedown litigation" about texts sent during quiet hours, is anxiously hoping that the FCC will act soon on the group's 9-month-old petition for a declaratory ruling (see 2503030036). An agency affirmation that prior consumer consent means those texts don’t violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “should have been a no-brainer,” Carter said.
NTIA is going to look into excessive screen use in schools by youths, with an eye toward what federal policies and incentives might be contributing to the problem, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday at a Free State Foundation event. NTIA will also look at what market dynamics and marketing efforts are driving excessive screen use, she said.
The FCC's proposal to license submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) owners and operators is facing strong opposition from the industry, according to comments posted Friday in docket 24-523. The commission in August adopted a submarine cable licensing further NPRM that proposed SLTE blanket licensing (see 2508070037).
U.S. Supreme Court justices in oral argument Monday repeatedly challenged and tested Cox Communications' claim that it bears no liability for online piracy by its broadband subscribers. Cox is challenging a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld a lower court's contributory copyright infringement finding against the ISP (see 2408160034). The docket is 24-171.
The FCC seems likely to move toward looser spectrum-sharing rules between non-geostationary and geostationary orbit satellites, allowing for NGSOs to operate at higher equivalent power flux density (EPFD) levels, satellite and spectrum experts tell us. That could mean big momentum for NGSO efforts to get similar changes made at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, we're told. The FCC chairman's office didn't comment.
EchoStar faces litigation from two tower companies over lease agreements from the now-ended nationwide wireless network buildout by its Dish Wireless subsidiary, but few if any other tower company suits are likely, said Ken Schmidt, president of Steel in the Air cell tower lease consultancy. American Tower and Crown Castle represented the vast bulk of Dish's wireless network deployment, and have substantially more to lose than other tower companies, Schmidt added.