SpaceX May Launch VLEO Broadband

JTMan

Interesting article, by Gavin Sheridan, here regarding the speculation that Musk will launch a very-low-earth-orbit (VLEO) global satellite broadband product which will include a home broadband product.

Essentially Gavin, who has got other things about Musk right, thinks that SpaceX will:

1. Sometime this year or early next year Musk will announce the plan for the “X” network. He will outline a broad schedule for launches and coverage areas and include high-level pricing.

2. SpaceX will seek permission for various bands, and seek to overcome any regulatory hurdles. It will meet resistance from incumbents.

3. Musk will later announce the launch of Tesla vehicles with integrated antennas to access the orbital network. Tesla will launch home products for broadband and sell X via its Tesla showroom network globally. These products will integrate will with solar roof/solar storage products.

ED E

The "Boring Company" and the plan for NSW energy are something you can just jump to and get done, mostly. Global telecomms is not so .

Presumably to get effective tPut you'll be talking <1500Mhz, thats prime real estate. In every country. At least a decade to negotiate licensing.

[Im a musk fan, but this is a bit off the wall by his standards]

The Cush

This from a SpaceX presentation to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation last May

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/5/investing-in-america-s-broadband-infrastructure-exploring-ways-to-reduce-barriers-to-deployment

Last November, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) for a
license to operate a new non-geostationary satellite orbit (“NGSO”) broadband internet constellation,
unveiling a development project we have been undertaking for nearly three years.

[...]

Initially, the SpaceX system will consist of 4,425 satellites operating in 83 orbital planes (at altitudes
ranging from 1,110 km to 1,325 km). This system will also require associated ground control facilities,
gateway earth stations, and end user earth stations. Using Ka- and Ku-Band spectrum, the initial system is
designed to provide a wide range of broadband and communications services for residential, commercial,
institutional, governmental, and professional users worldwide. SpaceX has separately filed for authority to
operate in the V-Band*, where we have proposed an additional constellation of 7,500 satellites operating
even closer to Earth. In the future, these satellites would provide additional broadband capacity to the
SpaceX system and further reduce latency where populations are heavily concentrated.

[...]

For the end consumer, SpaceX user terminals—essentially, a relatively small flat panel, roughly the size of
a laptop—will use similar phased array technologies to allow for highly directive, steered antenna beams
that track the system’s low-Earth orbit satellites. In space, the satellites will communicate with each other
using optical inter-satellite links, in effect creating a “mesh network” flying overhead that will enable
seamless network management and continuity of service. The inter-satellite links will further help SpaceX
comply with national and international rules associated with spectrum sharing, which distinguishes our
system from some of the other proposed NGSO constellations.

[...]

Later this year, SpaceX will begin the process of testing the satellites themselves, launching one prototype
before the end of the year and another during the early months of 2018. Following successful demonstration
of the technology, SpaceX intends to begin the operational satellite launch campaign in 2019. The
remaining satellites in the constellation will be launched in phases through 2024, when the system will
reach full capacity with the Ka- and Ku-Band satellites.

Ms. Patricia Cooper
Vice President of Satellite Government Affairs
SpaceX

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/6c08b6c2-fe74-4500-ae1d-a801f53fd279/655C5CBED75A50881172C1E9069D91E6.testimony-patricia-cooper---broadband-infrastructure-hearing.pdf

* 4.5 GHz of V-band spectrum (37.5-40.0/50.4-52.4 GHz)

As of March 2017, several US companies—Boeing, SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat, O3b Networks and Theia Holdings—have each filed with the US regulatory authorities "plans to field constellations of V-band satellites in non-geosynchronous orbits to provide communications services," an electromagnetic spectrum that had not previously been "heavily employed for commercial communications services."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_band
http://spacenews.com/fcc-gets-five-new-applications-for-non-geostationary-satellite-constellations/
https://www.spaceintelreport.com/itu-fcc-satellite-constellation-surge-requires-new-rules/
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dc911b8b-f6f8-4059-bdbb-31e4a81bd78a

Johnboy1951

So he proposes he puts up some 12,000 satellites in a mesh?

Is there any global authority which regulates the hardware that can be put in orbit around earth?

The Cush

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Is there any global authority which regulates the hardware that can be put in orbit around earth?

I guess the ITU would be that authority. Not necessarily the hardware but the spectrum the satellites use which falls under the Radio Regulations as maintained by the ITU. They maintain a register of satellite filings in line with the Radio Regulation submitted by NRAs such as the FCC, Ofcom, etc.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote:

Is there any global authority which regulates the hardware that can be put in orbit around earth?

The Cush wrote: »

I guess the ITU would be that authority. Not necessarily the hardware but the spectrum the satellites use which falls under the Radio Regulations as maintained by the ITU. They maintain a register of satellite filings in line with the Radio Regulation submitted by NRAs such as the FCC, Ofcom, etc.

It was the hardware that I was wondering about.

No regulation on numbers or positions of satellites or other hardware 'up there'?

The Cush

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

No regulation on numbers or positions of satellites or other hardware 'up there'?

No doubt there are ITU regulations, you'll have to trawl their site.

Johnboy1951

The Cush wrote: »

No doubt there are ITU regulations, you'll have to trawl their site.

Had a quick trawl ......

Member States are asked to limit the number of frequencies and the spectrum used to the minimum needed to provide the necessary services. The Preamble to the Radio Regulations establishes similar principles. Essentially, we are asked to be good stewards of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits.