The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States stated on Wednesday that it will vote on a proposal to auction 25MHz of “high-quality spectrum” in order to support “direct connection devices” (direct-to-device, D2D) services from satellites to smartphones.
FCC also stated in a press release that on October 29th, a vote will be held on another proposal to seek public opinion. The proposal aims to allow an additional 482MHz of spectrum to be used for supplementary coverage services from space and to modernize the service rules for D2D within the licensed spectrum by FCC.
According to FCC, these two proposals may be beneficial to SpaceX and companies such as Amazon, which have been pushing for the expansion of D2D services through satellite networks.
FCC indicates that the third proposal to be put to a vote is "to remove an outdated restriction that has prevented drone operations in 800 MHz cellular frequency bands."
In July, Amazon requested FCC approval to launch up to 5,105 internet satellites as part of its constellation plan aimed at providing direct connection services for devices. In documents submitted that month, Amazon stated that its target users were those populations that were "not covered or inadequately covered" by existing wireless operators.
In August, Amazon announced that it would acquire Globalstar for over $11.5 billion to drive its Leo satellite internet business.
On Tuesday, the FCC Space Agency approved the application for 15,000 satellites for the new direct-connected cellular system by SpaceX.
In a press release on Wednesday, FCC stated: 'This constellation will use the spectrum that SpaceX purchased from EchoStar earlier this year, and FCC has approved this transaction, which is a major victory for the US space economy.'
On Wednesday, Chairman Brendan Carr stated in a declaration: "These 'direct connection devices' proposals aim to continue to leverage this cutting-edge technology to eliminate mobile signal dead zones and enable the next generation of satellite constellations to provide services directly to your smartphones. Our final regulations regarding drones also further respond to President Trump's call for a dominant role for drones, providing available spectrum for the emerging American drone economy to support the next generation of commercial and defense innovations."
