Weekly Wrap: Are we on the cusp of a spectrum trade war?

“For decades, the U.S. has welcomed foreign satellite operators into our market,” said FCC chair Brendan Carr on X in March. “New barriers are emerging that constrain US businesses operating abroad, including in the draft EU Space Law and their Digital Networks Act.”

At the time, Carr was announcing a call for comments on “reciprocity” and “fair treatment for our operators”. He later denied that this was the same thing as “retaliation”.

On 27 May, the European Commission unveiled its proposals for the future of the 2 GHz MSSMobile-satellite service (MSS) describes a… band, which reserve part of that spectrum for European projects.

This prompted Carr to state on the same day that “reciprocity will continue to be the touchstone and the FCC has a proceeding open aimed at ensuring fair treatment for American businesses”.

At the EU Space Forum conference earlier this month, this kind of rhetoric was still pervasive; one keynote speech cautioned Europe against “building regulatory walls” with the US.

Following all this gesturing towards like-for-like trade restrictions, satellite operator SpaceX wrote to the FCC this week calling on the regulator to target Eutelsat’s pending application for a 528-satellite constellation.

“Foreign-based operators such as Eutelsat/OneWeb filed requests for US market access… but the home countries of these operators are among the same administrations that promote policies to discriminate against American companies,” said David Goldman, SpaceX’s vice president of satellite policy.

Goldman called for the FCC to “evaluate these applications for market access in view of the pending reciprocity proceeding and apply market access conditions fairly and equally”.

With the backing of the world’s biggest satellite company, a protectionist approach to spectrum is looking increasingly likely.

While there is truth in comments that the EU is restricting market access to the full 2 GHz MSS band for foreign companies, is it really in anyone’s interest to escalate a looming trade war when international spectrum policy is generally marked by cooperation and consensus?

Many will be waiting nervously to see what action the FCC decides to take and the precedent that will set.

Here is what else PolicyTracker reported on this week:

• Myanmar has finally completed its delayed 5G auction
• UK regulator Ofcom has decided to move ahead with its proposed split of the 6 GHz band between mobile and Wi-Fi
• The BBC Charter Review has put a £3.6bn spectrum question on the table
• The Dominican Republic has launched a second attempt at a multi-band auction