WASHINGTON — U.S. telecom regulators the evening of March 29 accepted SpaceX’s application to reach U.S customers with a megaconstellation of 4,425 broadband satellites, but denied the company’s request to relax the deadline by which it must have its entire constellation in orbit.
(…)SpaceX is the fourth company the FCC approved to launch a new non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite constellation after opening up a new processing round in 2016. Other companies approved are OneWeb for 720 satellites in low Earth orbit, Telesat Canada for 117 satellites in low Earth orbit, and Space Norway for two satellites in highly elliptical orbits. Last month FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged other commissioners to support SpaceX’s application, arguing it would help bring internet access to rural and underserved areas of the United States.
SpaceX will have to launch at least half of its constellation of Ku- and Ka-band satellites within six years of today, per the agency’s recently revised rules, or its authorization freezes at the number of satellites in operation at that date. The FCC in September relaxed its deadline, giving operators nine years to launch their full constellation, but even those rules are stricter than what SpaceX would refer. The launch-provider-turned-satellite operator asked the FCC for an okay to launch 1,600 satellites in six years — just over a third of its full constellation.
SpaceX said the FCC’s deadline was “impractical” and that it could start broadband service without the full constellation. The FCC said no, but gave SpaceX permission to re-submit a waiver request in the future. SpaceX said in October it plans to start service with 800 to 900 satellites.
Si la fibre met du temps à vous arriver, la solution pourrait très vite venir des airs avec la 5G et même de l’espace avec Starlink, OneWeb ou même Apple (lien). Et même si vous avez déjà la fibre, Starlink devrait vous intéresser avec sa vitesse de 1 Gbps et 25 ms de temps de latence (lien).
