OneWeb focused on “one simple question” posed in the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) about the future of the 12 GHz band: Will incumbent satellite services in the band suffer harmful interference if the agency introduces a two-way terrestrial mobile allocation in the band?
The answer, according to OneWeb, is a resounding “yes.” The company submitted its own technical study into the record this week to back that claim, adding that it’s high time the commission ended the 12 GHz proceeding and let the satellite services proceed unimpeded.
The low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite company shares similar concerns as SpaceX, which has been blasting terrestrial wireless players, namely Dish Network and RS Access, for pressing forward with 5G plans for the 12 GHz band. So far, the rules for the band prohibit two-way communications, but companies like Dish, which holds MVDDS licenses in the band, petitioned the FCC for rule changes so they can use it for 5G.
The 12 GHz band has received a lot more attention in recent weeks after SpaceX encouraged Starlink fans to submit comments to the FCC – and it made it easy to do so with pre-scripted messaging.
OneWeb was concerned that folks were losing focus on the importance of the 12 GHz band to OneWeb and its distribution partners, according to Kim Baum, VP, Spectrum Engineering and Strategy at OneWeb.
In particular, other studies submitted into the record assumed a geographical separation between the satellite service and proposed terrestrial services that isn’t necessarily there, she told Fierce.
“We were concerned the RS Access studies really hid the real interference by spreading things out across the entire U.S.,” artificially pushing the mobile services to the urban areas and non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite service to more rural areas, Baum said.
In addition, OneWeb has a different business model than SpaceX, which is going direct to the consumer market in a big way. OneWeb is lining up distribution partners and focused on business-to-business type services, with the expectation its terminals will be deployed at strip malls or buildings that are a few stories high where the line-of-sight to a mobile base station may be more direct.
“We’re really concerned that just assuming so many of the user terminals would be on the ground was underestimating the interference OneWeb customers would receive,” so the modeling in its study put 80% of the NGSO user terminals on top of buildings of a certain height and 20% at lower ground levels, she said.
Basically, OneWeb’s study shows that NGSO fixed satellite service (FSS) operators would not be able to deploy user terminals in the proximity of a typical urban or suburban macro cell base station deployment without receiving harmful interference.
A separate analysis by SpaceX shows terrestrial mobile service would cause harmful interference to SpaceX’s Starlink terminals in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band more than 77% of the time, resulting in full outages 74% of the time.
That contrasts to an RKF Engineering study that RS Access submitted into the record, which estimates a nationwide 5G network would cause interference to less than 1% of NGSO terminals.
5G for 12 GHz Coalition statement
In a statement, 5G for 12 GHz Coalition Co-Chair Chip Pickering said the study released by OneWeb is another in-house, non-independent effort to discredit the “scientifically proven feasibility of coexistence” in the 12 GHz band.
“It is important to note that the FCC has already made it clear that any NGSO FSS company utilizing the 12 GHz band is doing so at its own risk and there should be no expectation of exclusivity within the band,” he said. “The 5G for 12 GHz Coalition remains committed to working with the FCC and stakeholders to reach a win-win solution for the American people. We will continue to pursue the facts that prove coexistence is possible in the band and advance the public interest.”
RS Access CEO V. Noah Campbell said that as it’s shown over the last 18 months, “RS Access is committed to providing sound and independent engineering analysis to demonstrate that coexistence is eminently feasible in the 12 GHz band.”
He added: “Our interactions with FCC staff have been universally productive, and we're confident in the engineering expertise at the Bureaus. We don't believe they will be distracted by the rhetoric in the docket as they focus on the technical feasibility of coexistence and finding a win-win solution.”
OneWeb’s focus on B2B
OneWeb currently provides broadband service in Alaska, with plans to resume launching its constellation later this year and to extend coverage in the rest of the U.S. next year, Baum said.
The company received its license to use the 12 GHz band in 2017, and the FCC opened the 12 GHz NPRM in 2021, so the idea of 5G in the band isn’t something the company could have planned for when it started designing its system, she said. In addition, there’s already a fair amount of coordination going on with the current users in the band.
OneWeb has launched 428 satellites and those satellites are designed to have access to this spectrum; it can’t just add another frequency band to those satellites, she said.
“This is a critical band for satellite broadband and for OneWeb distribution partners and their customers,” Baum said. “These are services that are being provided today. What services are Dish and RS Access providing in the band?”
OneWeb is lining up distribution partners, one of which is AT&T, which will then sell the service to their customers. In the case of AT&T, it expects to use it to improve access for AT&T business customers into remote and challenging geographic locations.