FCC chairwoman on Starlink: ‘Our economy doesn’t benefit from monopolies’

Competition is a concern when it comes to companies operating in low-Earth orbit, Federal Communications Commissions Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday, referring specifically to Starlink, the satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk. 

During a FedScoop-moderated discussion at the Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., Rosenworcel said that in her time leading the FCC, one thing that’s become clear to her is that “every communications market that has competition is stronger.”

She added, “We see lower prices and more innovation, and honestly, space should be no exception. So we do have one player that’s almost two-thirds of the satellites that are in space right now, and has a very high portion of internet traffic. And the way I see it is, our economy doesn’t benefit from monopolies.” 

SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, which now has thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit, has run into a series of hurdles at the FCC, which oversees satellite licenses and the spectrum the company uses. For example, back in 2022, the agency rescinded a nearly $1 billion subsidy focused on rural broadband. More recently, AT&T and Verizon have raised opposition to waivers, sought by SpaceX and T-Mobile, for out-of-band emissions limits. 

In response to FedScoop questions, the commissioner also commented on Taiwan’s plan to build a Starlink-esque internet service and the demand for spectrum from both federal and non-federal users. 

This interview was adapted from an event at the Global Aerospace Summit, which was arranged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s been edited for length and clarity. 

FedScoop: I want to start out by asking about the Space Bureau. It’s been about a year since this was created. Can you talk about the successes you’ve seen, what you’ve been able to do thus far?

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: So much more of our communications today depend on satellites in the skies. And when I got to the FCC, we decided we needed to reorganize to support United States leadership in this area. So like you said, it’s been over a year, and since the time we reorganized, we’ve done a whole lot. We have streamlined the process for filing for satellite licenses with the United States. We have also set aside spectrum for space launches and for satellite use.

We have updated our orbital debris policies [and] put out a framework for in-space service, assembly and manufacturing activities in space. I think one of the most important things we’ve done is we have developed a framework that is the first in the world for bringing satellite communications functionality into all of our mobile phones and devices, so we have a backup in the skies from our terrestrial systems fail. 

FS: When the Space Bureau was announced, there was an international office opened as well. Curious if you can talk about that dynamic, dealing with other countries, in terms of creating more stable groundwork for actually building this kind of infrastructure.

JR: We help manage the most important infrastructure you can’t see, which is the spectrum of our skies. Figuring out how much to allocate for ground-based uses versus satellite uses is part of our mandate. But when we do that, we can’t just do it domestically. We’ve got to coordinate globally. So the United Nations has an organization that’s been around for a very long time, called the International Telecommunications Union, that periodically gathers from the World Radio Communications conference. 

What’s happened during my tenure is, when we gather now, we talk more about satellites and space communications than ever before. It is becoming a much bigger part of the global discussion about communications because it’s a much bigger part of our global economy.  

FS: Do you have any thoughts about Taiwan, which is talking about building its own satellite infrastructure as well, that’s sort of Starlink-like?

JR: I think that our space economy is going to be stronger when it’s more competitive. We should embrace the idea of having many more actors in low-Earth orbit, as long as they follow the rules of the International Telecommunications Union and work with us. We are open to that competition because we know it’s going to encourage innovation and we’ll work with our democratic allies to help them succeed.

FS: My understanding is that the FCC issued one of its first fines for satellite deorbiting. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

JR: Creating policies is one thing, but if you don’t enforce them, they don’t have a lot of staying power. And so when we get a satellite application before us, we’re going to ask that you abide by our rules for orbital debris and space sustainability. Develop a plan, and if you fail to abide by that plan — which was a condition of your license —  we will fine you as we fined Dish a little over a year ago. 

FS: One of the topics you mentioned earlier was promoting competition in this new area. How are you thinking about tensions between longtime players and newer companies, something like Verizon versus something like Starlink?

JR: So the one thing that’s clear to me as the head of the Federal Communications Commission is that every communications market that has competition is stronger. We see lower prices and more innovation, and honestly, space should be no exception. So we do have one player that’s almost two-thirds of the satellites that are in space right now and has a very high portion of internet traffic. The way I see it is that our economy doesn’t benefit from monopolies. So we’ve got to invite many more space actors, in many more countries, to develop conservation and innovations in space.

FS: What are the next steps on that front?

JR: So one of our big initiatives [is called the] Transparency Initiative; we recognize that a lot of the new companies working in space are not familiar with processes at the Federal Communications Commission. Satellite systems are something they want to invest in, but we’ve got to start doing a lot of outreach, explaining what it is we do and how applications get filed with us. … I think outreach has really become a part of our ongoing effort here, because we know there’s going to be a whole bunch of new players in the space economy and we want to invite them in to talk to us and learn about our process. My hope is that we can evolve our process over time so it works better, so we can help foster more competition.

FS: How are you thinking about the overall capacity of low-Earth orbit, especially in conversations about just making sure it’s navigable?

JR: The most important thing to do is invest now in space sustainability. If you’re going to bring something up into orbit, you’re going to have a requirement to bring it down. We need to know that you’re a good steward of space. That’s not just important for our domestic communications market; it’s important for us to represent that to the world globally. So that’s a condition of really coming in and working with us. And I think it’s a smart one for the United States. … I’m also an optimist and a fan of dynamic markets when it comes to spectrum and space communications. I think we’re going to continue to get creative and innovative and be able to do more things in our skies. This is just historic.

FS: The FCC has a lot of jurisdiction over non-federal government uses of spectrum. Is there pressure to release spectrum that is operated by the federal government right now? How do you see that conversation playing out over the next few years?

JR: The airwaves around us are the most important infrastructure we don’t see and how we zone it is a really important part of how we build [the] communications economy. How much we’re giving to terrestrial systems, how much we’re giving to systems in the sky, how much the federal government has, how much the private sector gets access to — these are hard-fought decisions. But in the next month, I put a decision before my colleagues where we would take new spectrum in the 17 gigahertz band and make it newly available for non-geostationary operators. So we’re finding new ways to free up some airwaves to help support the space economy.