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Starlink seeks to abandon global licensing commitments
Musk is seeking to remove the ITU interference protections of critical satellite systems that compete with Starlink in Indonesia and abroad.
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Linking up: An officer prepares Starlink flat high-performance kit in the construction site of future capital city Nusantara in North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, on May 18, 2024. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) provides high-speed satellite internet access in 10 spots across Nusantara. (Antara/OIKN TB)
E
lon Musk’s Starlink has been granted licenses to operate in Indonesia and other Asian countries, yet it is actively seeking to abandon the international commitments that form the basis for the licensing of the Starlink low earth orbit (LEO) satellite system.
Starlink is the LEO satellite mega-constellation owned by Musk’s SpaceX.
The licensing of Starlink and other LEO satellite systems relies on an international treaty commitment to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that protects critical geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites used for communications, defense and satellite TV broadcasting from radio interference caused by LEO systems like the Starlink mega-constellation.
While the latest edition of the ITU treaty-making conference, the World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 in Dubai, categorically rejected a United States-SpaceX-led proposal to remove the treaty’s global limits (known as Article 22 EPFD limits), Starlink continues to submit requests to the ITU calling for the abandonment of the limits.
Starlink’s insistence is recorded in several input documents submitted to the ITU’s satellite study group in May 2024. SpaceX has been using proxy countries such as the US and the island of Tonga to push the ITU to abandon the carefully crafted treaty rules.
The ITU treaty limits provide the necessary interference safeguards that protect critical communications, defense and TV broadcasting satellites in the GEO orbit used by Indonesia and other nations around the world.
There are several submissions to the US regulator (FCC) indicating that the Starlink mega-constellation design violates the ITU limits.
