The American operator AT&T contacted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and expressed concerns about the prospects for a joint project between T-Mobile and SpaceX, which involves access for mobile subscribers to Starlink satellites.
Image source: Rubaitul Azad / unsplash.com
In a statement, AT&T says SCS (Supplemental Coverage from Space) technologies should not affect terrestrial communications services and the FCC “should have priority” protection of terrestrial networks and that the T-Mobile and SpaceX prospectuses lack information about possible interference. “The applicants’ engineering calculations are grossly inadequate in terms of the hazardous intrusions that may result from their proposed SCS deployment. <..> SpaceX and T-Mobile services do not meet quality standards and cannot be provided in their current state.”says AT&T.
T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a joint project last August – the idea is to provide coverage in regions where there is no terrestrial communications without modifying user equipment. Tests of satellite communication for ordinary smartphones are planned for the current year. A similar project with satellite provider AST SpaceMobile is being implemented by AT&T itself – the first call to the satellite from a regular Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone was made in late April.
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