Originally published by Space Intel Report on July 1, 2024. Read the original article here.

TUPPER LAKE, New York — The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said operators of global satellite constellations cannot switch off service to a given nation or geography, a statement that flies in the face of evidence of satellite operators doing just that when their services are not licensed.

The FCC’s position came in written statements to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations Board (RRB), which has been trying to get SpaceX to switch off access to its Starlink service in Iran.

The RRB in March asked the FCC and the Norwegian Communications Authority (Nkom), which shares regulatory responsibility for Starlink at the ITU, to force SpaceX to cease access over Iran following Iranian government protests that Starlink was not licensed there.

The RRB in March had rejected the US and Norwegian statements and asked that they disable Starlink access from terminals inside Iranian territory. They further asked the two governments to outline what efforts had been taken to accomplish this.

The FCC had obfuscated in its earlier responses and said SpaceX had switched off a few terminals whose serial numbers had been provided by the Iranian Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. But Starlink was not disabled over Iran.

Here is an exchange from the FCC’s June response to the RRB, which met June June 24-28:

RRB: Can the US and Norway confirm that SpaceX is able to disable Starlink service over a given territory?

FCC: “For global constellations, it is neither required nor practicable to turn off satellite beams over a given geographic area. Disabling satellite beams over a country can affect operations in other countries.

“It appears we are being asked to explore ways to take actions to stop any space station emissions over a country to help close any gaps that the administration may have in enforcing its domestic laws within its borders. We see no role for the ITU to play…. SpaceX has taken all reasonable and practicable steps to ensure that its terminals are not offered within the territories of the administration in question. What is being asked here is to help an administration find ways to render electronic devices useless within its territories so that there will be no incentive to smuggle them into its borders.

“If a Member State wants to control its borders and enforce its national laws, it can do so, but this is not a matter for the ITU.”

The RRB’s June 28 response: The FCC is not addressing the issue at hand, and ITU rules do indeed obligate an authorizing administration to force an operator to cease unlawful broadcasts.

“The responses to the two questions explicitly asked to the Administrations of Norway and the United States raised aspects that were mostly not related to the issue of the provision, in direct contravention of the provisions of Article 18 and of resolves 1 and 2 of Resolution 22 (WRC-19) and the resolves of Resolution 25 (Rev.WRC03), of transmissions from within any territories where they had not been authorized,” the RRB said.

The ITU has little power to force governments to do anything other than repeatedly request that they act in line with the ITU’s rules. Disputes often go unresolved for years.

Iran: If you can switch off coverage of South Africa, you can switch off Iran

Iran wanted the RRB to begin a legal procedure against the United States and Norway. The RRB, conscious of its limited authority, chose to “invite the Administrations of Norway and the United States to provide further information on any additional actions taken” to resolve the matter.

In the latest round of communications with the ITU, Iran provided news clippings of several African governments’ regulatory issues with Starlink.

In one example, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in November issued a statement that Starlink was not licensed in that country and that any use of it was illegal. The concern there was that Starlink terminals registered outside South Africa were using the service’s roaming feature to operate in South Africa. To secure a license, Starlink would need to provide 30% ownership of its South African business to historically disadvantaged groups.

SpaceX informed users in South Africa that the service would be switched off.

Originally published by Space Intel Report on July 1, 2024. Read the original article here.