Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are the two richest people in the world. The satellite Internet project led by the two parties has recently had a dispute. Earlier, Musk and SpaceX, the leading space exploration technology company, accused Bezos-led Amazon of trying to ‘contain competition in the satellite Internet industry.
On Thursday, Amazon clarified its position and emphasized that SpaceX should not modify its Starlink satellite Internet project license. Picture: On February 4, local time, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Florida and put 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.
Earlier this week, Amazon representatives communicated with officials of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to further emphasize Amazon’s position that the FCC should not approve SpaceX’s request to modify the permission of the Starlink satellite Internet project.
Both Amazon and SpaceX are working to build a satellite Internet network, launching thousands of satellites into orbit. Although Amazon emphasized that it “supports the operator’s right to modify its system design,” the company argues that SpaceX’s request for modification to the Starlink project is too large and the FCC cannot consider the application to be a simple adjustment to the project.
Amazon said that the FCC should treat the ‘Starlink’ modification application as a ‘newly designed system’ and incorporate it into the broader regulatory process that SpaceX disclosed when it submitted its application last year.
Amazon’s legal counsel Mariah Dodson Shuman wrote in a letter to the FCC: This will be in line with the committee’s precedent for protecting the public interest, encouraging coordination and cooperation, and promoting competition.
Amazon is not the only company that has rejected the Starlink project’s application for a modification permit. Satellite operators Viasat, SES, and Kepler Communications have also raised objections.
The dispute between SpaceX and Amazon entered the public eye last week. Musk declared on Twitter that his competitors are trying to ‘bind Starlink’ and added that Amazon’s Kuiper project will take at least a few years to be operational.
Although Amazon has not announced when its first Kuiper satellite will be launched, the FCC’s permit requirement for the project last year required the company to deploy half of the satellites in the project within six years.
This means that Amazon needs to deploy about 1,600 satellites by July 2026. SpaceX previously applied to move about 2,800 satellites in the first phase of the Starlink Internet satellite project to orbits below the FCC’s permit.
So far, the FCC has not made a decision on SpaceX’s application, but the agency approved a smaller application for the company last month to deploy 10 satellites in orbits below the originally planned altitude.
Amazon’s concerns about SpaceX’s permission to modify the original project focused on safety and interference issues. According to the company, the adjustment of the Starlink project “will significantly increase interference to Kuiper and other satellite systems,” while also making Starlink “more susceptible to interference from Kuiper and other systems.”
SpaceX executive David Goldman (David Goldman) told the FCC in January this year that the adjusted Starlink system will “be able to gain the advantage of low-orbit operation without significantly increasing interference.”
Additionally, Goldman emphasized, Amazon has held 30 meetings specifically to oppose SpaceX, but “none of the meetings discussed its own system”, he believes this is an attempt to curb competition.
However, even though SpaceX believes that Amazon and other companies “claim that interference is the bones in the egg”, Schumann of Amazon’s Kuiper project said SpaceX “missed” comparative data in its analysis.
Schumann said that the data showed that the adjustment of the Starlink project would “increase interference to the Kuiper satellite ground station.”
The satellite Internet projects of both companies have ambitions. Both Amazon and SpaceX said that the construction cost of their satellite Internet will reach about US$10 billion, or even more.
The SpaceX leadership had previously estimated that the Starlink project could bring in up to $30 billion in revenue each year, more than 10 times the annual revenue of its rocket business.
(Via)
