The SpaceX and Starcloud applications for orbital data center constellations now before the FCC Space Bureau involve novel operations in space that the agency hasn't seen before, as well as a massive number of satellites. But space law and policy experts told us that those proposed constellations, with SpaceX eyeing up to 1 million satellites (see 2602020003) and Starcloud as many as 88,000 (see 2602050002), shouldn't represent an oversized regulatory challenge for the FCC. The agency didn't comment.
In its quest to figure out how best to use roughly $21 billion in BEAD non-deployment funds, NTIA heard repeated calls Wednesday to let the money go to broadband adoption efforts and improved emergency communications networks. The agency hosted a two-hour listening session (see 2601260054) that saw dozens of speakers from among the more than 1,300 who signed up to speak. Given the heavy interest, NTIA set a second session for 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 18. There also were suggestions that the money be allowed to be used for streamlining state and local permitting processes.
With shovels about to go into the ground for BEAD, focus must shift to performance testing, broadband policy experts said Tuesday at NARUC's Winter Policy Summit in Washington. There’s a critical need for accountability to show that the service being paid for is actually operating within the parameters that ISPs promised, said NTCA Executive Vice President Mike Romano. Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, added that previous federal deployment programs “have done a horrible job” at performance testing and ensuring accountability.
Wireless and satellite interests are reinforcing their arguments on whether a spectrum slice in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band needs to remain a guard band protecting upper microwave flexible-use service (UMFUS) networks from adjacent-band earth stations in motion (ESIM). Docket 17-95 comments last week saw those interests largely buttress claims made last month as the FCC seeks comments about communications with ESIMs in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band (see 2601220027). In comments posted Friday, wireless interests also pushed back on SpaceX calls for the FCC to green-light ESIM operations across a wider array of Ku-band frequencies.
Congress made the right move by forestalling state or local regulation that could have held up development and deployment of the internet, and similar approaches might be warranted for AI, Meta Head of Global Policy Kevin Martin said Thursday. Pointing to the federal moratorium on state and local government taxation on internet access and the restrictions on taxes on e-commerce, the former FCC chairman said a similar moratorium on AI, an inherently interstate service, would give the federal government time to study AI oversight and make recommendations. Martin was speaking at Incompas’ policy conference in Washington. Much of the Incompas event revolved around permitting related to AI and data centers, particularly energy permitting.
NTIA isn't worried about state laws that tangentially touch on AI but is instead focused on those that are seen as directly affecting the development and success of the technology, Chief of Staff Brooke Donilon said Wednesday. A White House executive order in December directed NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment funding from BEAD for states that have AI laws that are considered overly burdensome (see 2512120048). Donilon said the report due March 11 from NTIA listing onerous laws will highlight a handful of states.
The roughly $20 billion in BEAD non-deployment funds should go foremost toward helping pay for counties' next-generation 911 transition, U.S. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson said Wednesday. Speaking at Incompas’ policy conference in Washington, Hudson, R-N.C., said building consensus with committee Democrats about using the money to pay for NG911 is a top priority.
Western nations need to collaborate rather than compete over critical communications and tech network infrastructure in the face of adversary nations clearly trying to control them, Ericsson Americas CEO Yossi Cohen said Tuesday. Speaking at the Information Technology Industry Council’s annual Intersect policy event in Washington, Cohen said Ericsson competitors in those nations are making business moves that are “not rational” unless they're viewed as part of a geopolitical strategy of control.
BEAD is unlikely to bring broadband to every unserved and underserved location in the U.S., and much or all of its estimated $21 billion in non-deployment funds should be set aside to address those missed spots, speakers said Monday at the Silicon Flatirons conference in Boulder, Colorado. There must be discussions now about what infrastructure support, if any, is needed to reach missed locations, said Giulia McHenry, AT&T's senior vice president of public policy.
Astronomers are viewing SpaceX's plans for a constellation of up to 1 million solar-powered data center satellites with concern about what it could mean for space sustainability and safe space operations. "That's just too many satellites to look after," said Hugh Lewis, an astronautics professor in the space environment and radio engineering research group at the U.K.'s University of Birmingham.