[Senate Hearing 115-569]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 115-569
THE COMMERCIAL SATELLITE INDUSTRY:
WHAT'S UP AND WHAT'S ON THE HORIZON
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 25, 2017
__________
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Transportation
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman
ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking
ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
DEAN HELLER, Nevada CORY BOOKER, New Jersey
JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma TOM UDALL, New Mexico
MIKE LEE, Utah GARY PETERS, Michigan
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
CORY GARDNER, Colorado MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
TODD YOUNG, Indiana CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
Nick Rossi, Staff Director
Adrian Arnakis, Deputy Staff Director
Jason Van Beek, General Counsel
Kim Lipsky, Democratic Staff Director
Chris Day, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
Renae Black, Senior Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on October 25, 2017................................. 1
Statement of Senator Thune....................................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 2
Statement of Senator Nelson...................................... 3
Statement of Senator Wicker...................................... 112
Statement of Senator Sullivan.................................... 114
Statement of Senator Cortez Masto................................ 115
Statement of Senator Hassan...................................... 117
Statement of Senator Gardner..................................... 121
Statement of Senator Inhofe...................................... 123
Statement of Senator Peters...................................... 125
Statement of Senator Blumenthal.................................. 127
Statement of Senator Markey...................................... 129
Witnesses
Patricia Cooper, Vice President, Satellite Government Affairs,
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX).................. 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Mark Dankberg, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ViaSat, Inc.. 17
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Stephen Spengler, Chief Executive Officer, Intelsat.............. 103
Prepared statement........................................... 104
Greg Wyler, Founder and Executive Chairman, WorldVu Satellites
Limited (OneWeb)............................................... 107
Prepared statement........................................... 109
Appendix
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Maggie Hassan to:
Patricia Cooper.............................................. 141
Mark Dankberg................................................ 142
Stephen Spengler............................................. 144
Response to written questions submitted to Greg Wyler by:
Hon. Cory Booker............................................. 145
Maggie Hassan................................................ 146
THE COMMERCIAL SATELLITE INDUSTRY: WHAT'S UP AND WHAT'S ON THE HORIZON
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m. in
room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John Thune,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Thune [presiding], Nelson, Wicker,
Fischer, Sullivan, Inhofe, Johnson, Capito, Gardner, Young,
Cantwell, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, Markey, Peters, Baldwin,
Hassan, and Cortez Masto.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
The Chairman. Good morning. Welcome to today's hearing on
the state of the commercial satellite industry and the promises
of next-generation satellite technology to improve the lives of
Americans. I believe we're at a critical moment in the
development of satellite capability, and I'm excited to hear
from our panel of distinguished witnesses today.
Satellite services available today offer residential
broadband at speeds substantially greater than those available
just a few years ago--download speeds that meet the Federal
Communications Commission's definition of advanced
telecommunications capability, and in some cases, without the
strict data cap limits that have vexed users of satellite
broadband in the past. Much of our television broadcast
programming is delivered to broadcasters by satellite with
extraordinary reliability, and millions of Americans receive
their video service through direct broadcast satellite.
This summer, the FCC for the first time authorized access
to the U.S. market to a provider using a proposed constellation
of 720 satellites. OneWeb received approval to enter the U.S.
market with an array of satellites to provide global, high-
speed broadband, including in remote and hard-to-serve areas.
For comparison, there are about 1,000 satellites total in
operation today. This new type of service would place
satellites in a much lower orbit than many of the satellites
currently in operation.
Similarly, SpaceX seeks to bring its satellite expertise to
bear with a proposal to deploy a constellation of thousands of
satellites to provide high-speed broadband. If realized, these
ambitious proposals could completely change consumer access to
broadband in rural areas as well as cities across the country
and around the world.
Satellite capability can also play a critical role in
establishing communication after natural disasters, and it has
been used by the Red Cross and others as part of the effort to
reconnect the residents of Puerto Rico after the devastation
caused by Hurricane Maria, as well as those affected by
hurricanes in Texas and Florida.
As with the wireless services this Committee has examined
at numerous hearings, spectrum is critical to satellite
services. As the value of spectrum has skyrocketed with
America's increasing demand for broadband, spectrum that
previously had little value for mobile broadband use now faces
competing demands.
It is essential that any evaluation of these competing
demands accurately consider the full range of spectrum uses and
how best to deliver broadband and other services to the
American people. The specifics of how to balance such demands
in the public interest--things like allocating spectrum between
services and between licensed and unlicensed use; setting
appropriate interference levels between terrestrial and
satellite uses; and determining the size, number, and location
of exclusions zones--are as important as they are complex.
However, they are not the subject of today's hearing, as the
FCC is addressing those matters in the ongoing Spectrum
Frontiers proceeding and elsewhere.
But it is important to set the broad parameters of this
discussion. We must ensure that next-generation technologies
rise or fall on their merits, including their efficiency in the
use of spectrum, and ultimately their ability to meet the
demands of American households for reliable high-speed
broadband.
Today we will have an opportunity to hear from some of the
leaders and innovators in the field who are redefining
satellite capability and who can explain what satellite
services can offer to ongoing efforts to make broadband more
available to all parts of the country and the world.
Wireline service, fixed and mobile wireless service, and
satellite service all have a role to play in connecting
Americans to next-generation broadband service.
Understanding satellite capability and the potential of
next-generation satellite deployments will help inform this
Committee regarding the costs and benefits of spectrum
allocations, spectrum sharing, and related technology-neutral
policies, among other things.
So I am pleased that we have such a distinguished panel to
address these matters today, and I look forward to hearing
their thoughts.
[The prepared statement of Senator Thune follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Thune, U.S. Senator from South Dakota
Good morning. Welcome to today's hearing on the state of the
commercial satellite industry and the promises of next-generation
satellite technology to improve the lives of Americans. I believe we
are at a critical moment in the development of satellite capability,
and I am excited to hear from our panel of distinguished witnesses
today.
Satellite services available today offer residential broadband at
speeds substantially greater than those available just a few years
ago--download speeds that meet the Federal Communications Commission's
definition of ``advanced telecommunications capability''--and in some
cases without the strict data cap limits that had vexed users of
satellite broadband in the past. Much of our television broadcast
programming is delivered to broadcasters by satellite with
extraordinary reliability, and millions of Americans receive their
video service through direct broadcast satellite.
This summer, the FCC for the first time authorized access to the
U.S. market to a provider using a proposed constellation of 720
satellites. OneWeb received approval to enter the U.S. market with an
array of satellites to provide global, high-speed broadband, including
in remote and hard-to-serve areas. For comparison, there are about 1000
satellites total in operation today. This new type of service would
place satellites in a much lower orbit than many of the satellites
currently in operation. Similarly, SpaceX seeks to bring its satellite
expertise to bear with a proposal to deploy a constellation of
thousands of satellites to provide high-speed broadband. If realized,
these ambitious proposals could completely change consumer access to
broadband in rural areas as well as cities across the country and
around the world.
Satellite capability can also play a critical role in establishing
communication after natural disasters, and has been used by the Red
Cross and others as part of the effort to reconnect the residents of
Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, as well as
those affected by hurricanes in Texas and Florida.
As with the wireless services this Committee has examined at
numerous hearings, spectrum is critical to satellite services. As the
value of spectrum has skyrocketed with America's increasing demand for
broadband, spectrum that previously had little value for mobile
broadband use now faces competing demands.
It is essential that any evaluation of these competing demands
accurately consider the full range of spectrum uses and how best to
deliver broadband and other services to the American people. The
specifics of how to balance such demands in the public interest--things
like allocating spectrum between services and between licensed and
unlicensed use; setting appropriate interference levels between
terrestrial and satellite uses; and determining the size, number, and
location of exclusion zones--are as important as they are complex.
However, they are not the subject of today's hearing as the FCC is
addressing those matters in the ongoing Spectrum Frontiers proceeding
and elsewhere.
But it is important to set the broad parameters of this discussion.
We must ensure that next-generation technologies rise or fall on their
merits, including their efficiency in the use of spectrum, and
ultimately their ability to meet the demands of American households for
reliable, high-speed broadband.
Today we will have an opportunity to hear from some of the leaders
and innovators in the field who are redefining satellite capability and
who can explain what satellite services can offer to ongoing efforts to
make broadband more available to all parts of the country and the
world. Wireline service, fixed and mobile wireless service, and
satellite service all have a role to play in connecting Americans to
next-generation broadband service.
Understanding satellite capability and the potential of next-
generation satellite deployments will help inform this Committee
regarding the costs and benefits of spectrum allocations, spectrum
sharing, and related technology-neutral policies, among other things. I
am pleased that we have such a distinguished panel to address these
matters today, and look forward to hearing their thoughts.
The Chairman. And I recognize Senator Nelson for his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. BILL NELSON,
U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA
Senator Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, this is an exciting time because communications
satellites are essential links in our globally connected world.
They bounce television signals all over the planet and provide
voice communication and Internet access to remote areas. And in
a recognition of satellites' resiliency and reliability, first
responders and those in disaster areas, like Florida after a
hurricane, Texas, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, they rely on
satellite systems as their lifeline when other communications
systems are down.
So the next generation of satellite-based communications
systems holds even more promise. Large constellations,
thousands of satellites, will provide broadband communications
that rival the terrestrial counterparts, and it's going to make
access even more affordable for broadband Internet. It's going
to become a reality that broadband Internet in rural areas and
remote areas that the terrestrial networks don't reach. Other
constellations promise imaging services that could advance key
Earth and climate science initiatives. And that's just the
beginning of it.
Much of this new interest and investment in space is coming
from the private sector. In fact, some have begun to call this
the second great Space Age. And as it was for the first great
Space Age, the epicenter--and I hate to be parochial here--the
epicenter----
[Laughter.]
Senator Nelson.--is going to be the Cape. So goes----
Senator Cantwell. [Clears throat.]
Senator Nelson. So goes--well, we'll let you do all your
manufacturing out there----
[Laughter.]
Senator Cantwell. We'll take--we'll take it, we'll take it.
Senator Nelson.--Senator Cantwell.
But as it was in the first great Space Age, so it now is in
the commercial launch business. And thanks in no small part to
the efforts of some of the companies here today and to our
commitment to an ambitious civil and national security space
program, the Cape is coming alive. The space industry has
brought millions of dollars of investment to this country,
along with thousands and thousands of jobs, lots of economic
benefits, and a lot of spin-offs from the technology that is
developed for the space program.
And so as we have been working with NASA, the FAA, and the
Air Force, and our colleagues here in Congress, we are paving
the way to a dramatic increase in commercial space activity at
the Cape. And when I say ``the Cape,'' that's the generic term,
not just the physical Cape Canaveral, which is the Air Force
station, but it also includes the Kennedy Space Center and the
commercial activities that are going on there, which are very
significant.
So take, for example, the commanding general of the 45th
Space Wing, General Monteith, he told me recently that they now
have the capability of supporting two launches in one day. Now,
in the past, that could have never happened. In large part,
that, in fact, is due to the autonomous destruct, and you don't
have to have an Air Force lieutenant sticking there with his
finger on the destruct button, but you have the autonomous
destruct if a rocket were to go off the trajectory that it's
supposed to be on, threatening populated areas.
And over the coming years, these launches are going to be
able to deliver thousands of new satellites to orbit, cargo and
crews to the International Space Station, and eventually new
technologies, like in-space manufacturing. And on top of all
that, we are building the vehicles that will return humanity to
deep space. And, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to Mars, and
the beginning of that is in 2 years with the launch of the
largest rocket, most powerful rocket ever, the SLS with its
spacecraft Orion. And that's just 2 years away.
So suffice it to say this, in fact, is not only an exciting
time, it's a critical time, for the space program and space
commercialization as well. And that's why it's such an
important time to have our space agency led by an experienced
and competent professional. The agency has not faced this
critical of an inflection point since the Apollo program. If we
stumble now, the impacts of our civil, commercial, and national
space capabilities could be felt for decades to come.
And I want to thank the witnesses for being here. This is
going to be an exciting discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Nelson. And we have lots
of wide open space and uncongested air space in South Dakota,
too----
[Laughter.]
The Chairman.--so if you want to bring any of that
technology our way, we welcome it.
We have a great panel, as you pointed out today. We have
Ms. Patricia Cooper, who is the Vice President of Satellite
Government Affairs at SpaceX; Mr. Mark Dankberg, who is the
Chief Executive Officer of ViaSat; Mr. Stephen Spengler, who is
the CEO of Intelsat; and Mr. Greg Wyler, who is the Founder and
Executive Chairman of OneWeb.
So thank you all for being here. We'll start on my left,
and your right, with Ms. Cooper, and then proceed. And if you
would all, if you can, limit your oral remarks to about 5
minutes, it will give us optimum time to ask questions. And
we'll make sure that all of your remarks get made part of the
written record of this hearing. So thank you for being here.
Ms. Cooper.
STATEMENT OF PATRICIA COOPER, VICE PRESIDENT,
SATELLITE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS,
SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (SPACEX)
Ms. Cooper. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Nelson, and
members of the Committee, I am pleased to be back today
representing SpaceX and my more than 6,000 colleagues who are
revolutionizing space technologies. Mr. Chairman, there's a
space renaissance underway, and SpaceX is proud to be at the
forefront of innovation.
My testimony today will outline SpaceX's plans to harness
the platform of space for a new approach to broadband delivery.
I will also recommend actions that the Committee can take to
foster innovation, by streamlining regulations, driving
efficient spectrum use, and protecting the safety of space.
SpaceX is designing, developing, building, and launching a
constellation of over 4,000 satellites operating close to the
Earth. We have designed our constellation to achieve an
ambitious and compelling goal, connecting the hundreds of
millions of Americans and billions of global citizens to high-
speed broadband.
Our direct-to-consumer focus drives the large scale of our
system, featuring substantial on-orbit capacity and to keep
pace as broadband demand grows, and sophisticated techniques
for frequency reuse.
From the outset, our constellation planning aimed to push
the edge of innovation so that we can groom our coverage to
match the peaks and valleys of broadband demand, interoperate
flexibly with other users, and protect the space environment.
Underlying these plans are the credentials that SpaceX has
built over 15 years that demonstrate our capability to
manufacture and operate complex space systems with
unprecedented innovation, efficiency, scale, and affordability.
Unlike many other aerospace firms, SpaceX is heavily
vertically integrated. We build our Falcon rockets and our
Dragon spacecraft in-house from tip to toe, including
propulsion systems, structures, avionics, and launch, all
within the U.S.
Our space and launch heritage and our drive to innovate
gives us a distinct edge in deploying our ambitious satellite
project. SpaceX has successfully launched 42 flights of the
Falcon 9, including 15 this year alone, landed 18 first stages
and reused 3, and flown 13 supply missions to the International
Space Station using our Dragon spacecraft. We will bring this
experience to bear in our satellite project.
In space, our constellation will use dynamic antennas and
optical links between the satellites to form an efficient mesh
network. These advancements will allow us to reuse frequencies
many times over to ultimately deliver far greater broadband
capacity to consumers. As a company, we are deeply committed to
maintaining a debris-free environment in space, and our
satellite system has been thoughtfully designed to meet or
exceed all existing requirements for safety of operations in
space and upon deorbit.
On the ground, we are producing affordable, easy-to-install
end user terminals that all but remove the incremental cost of
new users joining our network. Here we avoid the dollars-per-
mile terrestrial build-out costs and other obstacles that have
made terrestrial broadband connections cost prohibitive for so
many American communities.
The coming low-orbiting constellations hold enormous
potential to finally bring broadband connectivity to all
corners of America at speeds and latencies that today are
available really only in the most populated areas.
Mr. Chairman, we lay out an ambitious goal, and we could
use the Committee's help. To summarize my written statement, we
urge the Committee to continue its work to modernize the
regulatory framework for commercial launch operations, both at
the FAA and at the FCC. Launch is the critical path to
deploying satellite constellations, and licensing rules and
spectrum allocations must be updated to reflect that new pace
and number of launches. SpaceX is proud to launch our
constellation from U.S. soil on American-made SpaceX rockets.
The Committee should endorse rules that foster spectrum
sharing and technology advancement to make the best use of the
airwaves. The FCC has already taken an important step by
updating its rules for such satellite constellations,
rightfully expecting operators to negotiate among themselves
for spectrum sharing. Unfortunately, not all operators have
chosen to invest in available technologies for spectrum
efficiency. The Committee has an important oversight function
to ensure that the rules of the road incentivize and support
smart technology that can interoperate with other users on
orbit and on the ground.
To protect the space environment, the Committee should
encourage closer coordination among the many Federal agencies
responsible for orbital safety policies and regulation.
Congress should also consider additional investments in the
Nation's infrastructure to track orbital objects even more
precisely.
Finally, we ask for the Committee's vigilance to assure
tech neutrality in any and all legislation or Federal programs
designed to expand broadband infrastructure. Blanket exclusions
of any qualifying technology from existing programs, like the
Connect America Fund, should be rescinded so that new satellite
constellations can be harnessed for high-quality broadband
connectivity in every corner of America.
This is an exciting and dynamic time in the satellite
industry. I thank the Committee for the opportunity to be here
today and look forward to any questions.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Cooper follows:]
Prepared Statement of Patricia Cooper, Vice President, Satellite
Government Affairs, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's hearing. We
appreciate the Committee's interest in exploring how advanced satellite
technologies can expand broadband access within the United States and
the policies that would foster that capability. SpaceX also appreciates
that the Committee recognizes the potential of a new generation of
U.S.-based low-Earth orbit (``LEO'') or non-geostationary satellite
orbit (``NGSO'') satellite broadband system as an integral part of any
strategy to augment high-speed Internet connectivity nationwide. NGSO
satellite constellations intend to leverage emerging technologies in
space and on the ground to provide reliable, high-speed, and affordable
broadband service to customers throughout the United States and abroad.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with the express goal of dramatically
improving the reliability, safety, and affordability of space
transportation. Today, SpaceX today is the world's largest launch
services provider, measured by missions under contract and cadence of
launch, with 42 successful Falcon 9 launches, including 15 in 2017
alone.
SpaceX has deployed over 65 commercial communications satellites
since 2010. In addition to commercial satellite operators, SpaceX
supports a diverse and growing set of satellite and space customers,
including NASA, the Department of Defense, and allied international
governments. We have signed contracts for nearly 70 missions on
manifest, representing more than $10 billion. Under one of the most
successful public-private programs ever undertaken with NASA, SpaceX
also supports the Nation's civil space program through routine cargo
resupply missions with our Dragon spacecraft to the International Space
Station (ISS). Next year, we will have the awesome responsibility of
launching NASA astronauts to space from U.S. soil for the first time
since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. SpaceX is also a certified
provider to the Department of Defense for national security space
launch.
Leveraging our experience in space launch system and spacecraft
design, development, production, and on-orbit operations, SpaceX is
developing an innovative NGSO constellation. Our system is designed to
reach directly to end users, and provide global broadband services at
speeds, latencies and prices on par with terrestrial alternatives
available in metropolitan communities. Accordingly, we filed
applications with the Federal Communications Commission (``FCC'') in
November 2016 and April 2017 that detail those plans.
My testimony today will describe SpaceX's planned satellite
constellation, including our capabilities and timelines, as well as
offer a number of recommendations for the Committee's consideration to
streamline regulatory processes, maximize planned government investment
to accelerate broadband deployment, and ensure a safe, collaborative
operating environment in space. Specifically, my testimony today will
focus on the following areas:
(1) Launch. The importance of low cost launch enabled by rapid
reusability and robust launch infrastructure to making large-
scale, space-based broadband Internet services more viable
today than ever before, and recommendations to improve the
launch licensing regulatory framework both at the FCC and the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA);
(2) Spectrum Efficiency. Recommendations to ensure the efficient use
of spectrum, including potential regulatory incentives for
systems that invest in technologies that effectively share
spectrum. The Committee should take proactive steps to
encourage and reward companies that utilize and advance
technologies that result in maximum spectrum sharing and
efficiency.
(3) Technology-Neutral Programs. The need to update eligibility
requirements for nationwide broadband infrastructure
initiatives to ensure they are truly technology neutral, and do
not needlessly preclude satellite systems with equivalent or
better service from competing against more traditional
broadband providers. This hearing is an important forum to
review how satellite broadband has improved and can contribute
to the Nation's connectivity goals, and how to incorporate such
services into any national infrastructure initiative.
(4) Space Safety. The importance of ensuring that large satellite
constellations will employ robust orbital debris and space
safety protocols, including high reliability for individual
spacecraft; the speedy, planned deorbit of satellites at the
end of the useful life; the ability to implement active
collision avoidance throughout a satellite's life; and
transparency and information sharing.
Vertically Integrated Approach to Manufacturing and Extensive Space
Operations Experience
As the leading domestic commercial space launch provider, SpaceX
has restored the U.S. as a leader in global commercial satellite launch
by percentage of market share. In developing its fleet of highly-
reliable, affordable, and innovative launch vehicle systems, SpaceX has
invested billions of private capital in sophisticated manufacturing
processes, engineering and design know-how for space and launch
systems, the infrastructure needed to launch satellite payloads into
orbit, and technologies to make launch more affordable. These
manufacturing, engineering and design capabilities are trusted by the
U.S. civil and national security space community, commercial satellite
operators, and international governments.
Looking forward, SpaceX intends to leverage its fifteen years of
experience in space to develop and deploy a cost-effective and
sophisticated broadband satellite constellation. Our vertically-
integrated approach to this initiative--linking design, development,
production, launch, and operations--lends a unique capability to
address the challenges that stymied past generations that have
considered low-earth orbiting communications constellations from space.
SpaceX's proven core competency is the manufacturing of complex
space systems with increased efficiency, scale, and affordability.
Here, SpaceX has a vertically-integrated approach to manufacturing
uncommon within the aerospace industry. For Falcon, SpaceX manufactures
over 70 percent of the value of the Falcon 9 in-house, including the
first-and second-stage propulsion systems (Merlin 1D and MVacD), the
tanks, composite structures, payload fairings, avionics, etc.
Similarly, SpaceX produces the autonomous Dragon spacecraft in house,
including the on-board propulsion systems (Draco and SuperDraco),
pressure vessel, avionics, and all other major subsystems and
components. SpaceX also has extensive test facilities at our Rocket
Development facility in McGregor, Texas.
SpaceX will carry this vertical approach to design, manufacturing,
and test into our satellite broadband constellation. SpaceX expects to
manufacture in-house the majority of each spacecraft, leveraging the
experience we have gained with Falcon and Dragon in manufacturing and
specific systems, such as propulsion systems, avionics, and solar
arrays, among others. We are uniquely positioned to apply these proven
methods of reliability and cost-effectiveness to our planned broadband
satellite constellation.
SpaceX's satellite constellation will also benefit from the
company's extensive space operations experience, drawn from the Falcon
9 launch vehicle's 42 successful flights, 18 successful fist-stage re-
entries and landings, and over 13 Dragon flights to and from the
International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX can build upon the optimized
guidance, navigation, and control (``GNC'') systems that allow us to
land our first-stage boosters on land and at sea with pinpoint
accuracy. Similarly, our deep experience with orderly and safe de-orbit
through routine Dragon missions to the ISS has informed and enriched
careful and detailed on-orbit operations and de-orbit planning for the
satellite constellation. SpaceX is also drawing on the operational
experience it has built with every Federal agency working on space-
related issues--including FCC, FAA, NASA and DOD--to prepare and
coordinate for the satellite constellation undertaking. This unique
manufacturing, operational, and cross-agency engagement will advance
the planning and operations of the satellite broadband constellation.
II. Expanding Broadband Access and Bridging the Digital Divide
SpaceX sees a robust market of continuously-growing demand for
high-speed broadband both in the United States and worldwide. Connected
consumers continue to increase requirements for speed, capacity, and
reliability. And the volume of traffic flowing over the world's
networks continues to skyrocket, with one vendor estimating that annual
global Internet Protocol (``IP'') traffic surpassed the zettabyte
threshold in 2016--meaning that over 1,000 billion gigabytes of data
was exchanged worldwide last year.\1\ By 2020, that figure is projected
to more than double (reaching a level nearly 100 times greater than the
global IP traffic in 2005), global fixed broadband speeds will nearly
double, and the number of devices connected to IP networks will be
three times as high as the global population.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2015-
2020, at 1 (June 6, 2016), available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/
solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/
complete-white-paper-c11-481360.pdf; see also http://blogs.cisco.com/
sp/happy-zettabyte-day-2016. To fathom the volume of a zettabyte, if
one byte is a litter, then a zettabyte is the equivalent of 7080
Pacific Oceans. See id.
\2\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, as the Committee is aware, millions of Americans outside
of limited urban areas lack basic, reliable access to broadband--even
as worldwide demand for data skyrockets. We note a few important facts
about the availability and quality of broadband access in the United
States and worldwide:
-- According to the FCC, 34 million Americans lack access to 25
megabits per second (``Mbps'') broadband service, and 47
percent of the Nation's students lack the connectivity to meet
the FCC's short-term goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students and
staff. \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Federal Communications Commission, 2016 Broadband Progress
Report, (January 28, 2016), GN Docket No. 15-191, available at https://
apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-6A1.pdf.
-- The FCC has further noted that ``there continues to be a
significant disparity of access to advanced telecommunications
capability across America with more than 39 percent of
Americans living in rural areas lacking access to advanced
telecommunications capability, as compared to 4 percent of
Americans living in urban areas.'' \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Ibid.
-- Connectivity levels are even lower for tribal communities, with
``approximately 41 percent of Americans living on Tribal lands
lacking access to advanced telecommunications capability.'' \5\
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\5\ Ibid.
-- In addition, nearly 10 million Americans living in non-rural
areas also lack basic access to high-speed Internet service. As
a general matter, the U.S. continues to lag behind other
developed nations in both its broadband speed and in price
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competitiveness.
-- Even in urban areas of the United States, a majority of Americans
lacks more than a single fixed broadband provider from which to
choose and may seek additional competitive options for high-
speed service.\6\ According to the FCC, ``only 38 percent of
Americans have more than one choice of providers for fixed
advanced telecommunications capability,'' with only ``13
percent of Americans living in rural areas having more than one
choice of providers of these services compared to 44 percent of
Americans living in urban areas.'' \7\
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\6\ FCC, 2016 Broadband Progress Report.
\7\ Ibid.
-- Beyond the United States, the United Nations Broadband Commission
for Sustainable Development recently noted that 4.2 billion
people, or 57 percent of the world's population, are simply
``offline'' for a wide range of reasons--but predominately
because the necessary connectivity is not present or not
affordable.\8\
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\8\ Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, ``Open
Statement from the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development to
the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)'' (July 11, 2016), available
at http://broadbandcommission.org/Documents/publications/HLPF-
July2016.pdf.
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III. NGSO Satellite Constellations Offer Unique Advantages in Expanding
Broadband Access
Satellites have traditionally served at the forefront of remote and
rural connectivity, and often have helped to alleviate inequities in
the availability of communications services, in part due to geographic
reach. Historically, satellites first revolutionized the availability
of international telephony, then pioneered global distribution of video
content. More recently, satellite systems have introduced broadband
connectivity for mobile platforms, such as aircraft and ships--
establishing and supporting new markets and enhancing those businesses
and their customer experience.
New constellations of sophisticated satellites operating close to
the Earth add important prospects for remote connectivity, particularly
where latency is critical. In adopting new rules for such NGSO systems
and moving briskly on NGSO applications for U.S. market access and
systems licenses, the Commission has underscored the vital role that
NGSO systems can have for the broadband landscape of the future, and
that this future is coming imminently.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ Update to Parts 2 and 25 Concerning Non-Geostationary, Fixed-
Satellite Service Systems and Related Matters, IB Docket No. 16-408,
Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 17-122
(rel. Sept. 27, 2017) (``NGSO Report & Order'').
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At its Open Meeting on September 26, 2017, the Commission adopted a
Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking removing
``regulatory obstacles for companies proposing to provide [broadband]
services via large, ambitious, non-geostationary-satellite orbit
(NGSO), fixed satellite service (FSS) systems.'' \10\ SpaceX supports
the Commission's actions in this proceeding that update outdated NGSO
rules, create greater regulatory certainty and add flexibility for
next-generation NGSO systems that hold the promise of truly nationwide
satellite broadband coverage at speeds and latencies comparable to
terrestrial fiber-optics. Chairman Pai recognized the importance of
NGSO systems, stating that ``[a]s we strive to close the digital
divide, we must be open to any and every technology that could connect
consumers across the country.. . . The rules we adopt will promote the
next generation of NGSO systems, which could expand broadband access
where it's needed most.'' \11\ Commissioner Clyburn similarly stated
that ``[t]oday, we take yet another step to close those gaping divides
by updating and streamlining rules to facilitate the deployment of NGSO
FSS systems, which have the potential to provide ubiquitous broadband
services to all of our communities.'' \12\
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\10\ Id., Statement of Chairman Ajit Pai (stating that he has
circulated to the Commissioners orders granting U.S. market access to
two more NGSO systems).
\11\ NGSO Report and Order, Statement of Chairman Ajit Pai.
\12\ Id., Statement of Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn.
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SpaceX is unique in designing its system specifically to link
consumers directly with high-speed, low-latency broadband connectivity.
On orbit, SpaceX is employing advanced operational techniques and
spacecraft technologies in order to maximize the capacity it can employ
for high-speed broadband services, including high-degrees of re-use of
valuable spectrum, and flexibility in interference mitigation, allowing
our system to co-exist with other space-and ground-based systems. On
the ground, affordable, easy-to-install end-user terminals can obviate
the costs, environmental regulations, property rights issues, and other
regulatory obstacles, that have precluded many unconnected end-users in
smaller communities, or remote locations from comparable quality
Internet access. Once the satellite capability is deployed on-orbit,
the incremental costs of delivering broadband access to each new
customer become agnostic to urban, suburban, or rural locations, in
contrast to traditional terrestrial broadband networks.
SpaceX's constellation is designed fulfill its primary service
objective of providing high-speed broadband directly to end users
globally, both widely-dispersed locations and also more concentrated
population areas with higher capacity demands. With many satellites in
view, the constellation offers a diversity of path for reliability and
also access for any given customer location, even those blocked from
traditional satellite services by buildings, mountains, or other
physical obstacles. Phased-array technology on-orbit and on-ground
gateways and end-user terminals permit a large number of very narrow
beams, reusing frequencies many times over to generate a level of
capacity that can meaningfully bridge the broadband connectivity gap.
The same phased array technology allows for dynamic beam formation,
shaping, and direction, both to tailor capacity by demand profile and
also to mitigate interference to space-and ground-systems. Spectrum
sharing prospects with terrestrial systems sharing the same frequency
bands are enhanced by the use of high-elevation angles for
communications with earth stations and highly directional space station
and earth station beams.
The combination of unique vertically-integrated manufacturing and
design capabilities, proven production and operations experience, and
highly-adaptable, leading-edge technology in space and on the ground
gives promise for the SpaceX constellation to help close the digital
divide, and bridge the current disparity in service between well-
covered metropolitan consumers and their counterparts in rural or other
``hard-to-reach'' areas. Importantly, that urban-rural parity can also
be sustained over future generational upgrades over the NGSO
constellation, without requiring additional costly last-mile
infrastructure upgrades.
This lag was noted by the Government Accountability Office
(``GAO''):
Access to affordable broadband telecommunications is vital to
economic growth and improved quality of life across the
country. In rural areas in particular, broadband can serve to
reduce the isolation of remote communities and individuals. The
provision of broadband Internet infrastructure and services in
the United States is generally privately financed. However,
rural areas can have attributes that increase the cost of
broadband deployment, such as remote areas with challenging
terrain, or make it difficult to recoup deployment costs, such
as relatively low population densities or incomes. These
attributes can decrease the likelihood that a broadband service
provider will build out or maintain a network in a rural area.
For these reasons, some rural areas lag behind urban and
suburban areas in broadband deployment or service speed.\13\
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\13\ U.S. Government Accountability Office, Rural Broadband
Deployment: Improved Consistency with Leading Practices Could Enhance
Management of Loan and Grant Programs, (April 2017), GAO-17-301,
available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/684093.pdf.
Next-generation satellite systems operating in orbits close to the
Earth, powered by innovative technologies to provide rapid data rates
and minimal latency, can offer a way around this gap in broadband
access in the United States.
IV. SpaceX's Proposed Satellite Constellation Architecture
As noted, SpaceX plans to leverage its unique space-based design,
manufacturing, launch, and space operations experience for the planned
NGSO constellation.
In particular, SpaceX aims to apply our experience in designing and
manufacturing cutting-edge space to apply technology advancements like
dynamic beam forming and phased array antennas in space and on the
ground. These will ensure both unparalleled frequency re-use and
spectral efficiency, as well as redundant and high-capacity
infrastructure. The satellites' optical inter-satellite links will
establish a ``mesh network'' in space through which the satellites will
communicate with each other, further enhancing the capacity levels and
network flexibility for faster and reliable broadband satellite
service.
SpaceX's consumer focus sets it apart from most other proposed NGSO
system. SpaceX has designed its system with the primary purpose of
providing broadband service directly to end-users, particularly
individual households and small businesses. Meeting this distinct
direct-to-end-user goal demands far more on-orbit capacity, which in
turn drives the larger number of satellites in the design and the focus
on spectrum re-use efficiency. Initially, the SpaceX system will
consist of 4,425 satellites operating in 83 orbital planes (at
altitudes ranging from 1,110 km to 1,325 km). This system will also
require associated ground control facilities, gateway earth stations,
and end user earth stations.\14\ Using Ka-and Ku-Band spectrum, the
initial system is designed to provide a wide range of broadband and
communications services for residential, commercial, institutional,
governmental, and professional users worldwide. SpaceX has separately
filed for authority to operate in the V-Band, where we have proposed an
additional constellation of 7,500 satellites even closer to Earth, our
Very Low Earth Orbit, or ``VLEO,'' system. In the future, these
satellites will provide additional broadband capacity to the SpaceX
system and further reduce latency where populations are heavily
concentrated.\15\
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\14\ Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, Application for Approval for
Orbital Deployment and Operation Authority for the SpaceX NGSO
Satellite System (November 15, 2016), Before the Federal Communications
Commission, IBFS File No. SAT-LOA-20161115-00118.
\15\ Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, Application for Approval for
Orbital Deployment and Operating Authority for the SpaceX NGSO
Satellite System (March 1, 2017), Before the Federal Communications
Commission, IBFS File No. SAT-LOA-20170301-00027.
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To implement the system, SpaceX will utilize powerful computing and
software capabilities, which will enable SpaceX to allocate broadband
resources in real time, placing capacity where it is most needed and
directing energy away from areas where it might cause interference to
other systems, either in space or on the ground. Because the satellites
will beam directly to gateways or user terminals, the infrastructure
needed on the ground--particularly in rural or remote areas--is
substantially reduced, essentially addressing the ``last mile''
challenge and helping to close the digital divide. In other words, the
common challenges associated with siting, digging trenches, laying
fiber, and dealing with property rights are materially alleviated
through a space-based broadband network.
SpaceX intends to continually iterate and improve the technology in
the system, something that our satellite manufacturing cost profile and
in-house launch capability uniquely enables. The ability to modify
service as necessary, as well as refresh the technology of the
satellite system through iterative spacecraft design changes and
phased, continuous deployment, is critical to meet rapidly changing
customer demands and responsibly utilize spectrum. This approach will
ensure that the system remains adaptable to existing and future
customer demands.
For the end consumer, SpaceX user terminals--essentially, a small
flat panel, roughly the size of a laptop--will use similar phased array
technologies to allow for highly directive, steered antenna beams that
track the system's low-Earth orbit satellites. In space, the satellites
will communicate with each other using optical inter-satellite links,
in effect creating a ``mesh network'' flying overhead that will enable
seamless network management and continuity of service. The inter-
satellite links will further help SpaceX comply with national and
international rules associated with spectrum sharing, which
distinguishes our system from some of the other proposed NGSO
constellations.
Overall, SpaceX has designed our system to achieve the following
key objectives:
(1) Capacity. By combining the umbrella coverage of the LEO
Constellation with the more intensive coverage from the VLEO
Constellation, the SpaceX System will be able to provide high
volume broadband capacity over a wide area. SpaceX will
periodically improve the satellites over the course of the
multi-year deployment of the system, which may further increase
capacity.
(2) Adaptability. The system leverages phased array technology to
steer dynamically a large pool of beams to focus capacity where
it is needed. As noted, optical inter-satellite links will
permit flexible routing of traffic on-orbit. Further, the
constellation ensures that a variety of frequencies can be
reused effectively across different satellites to enhance the
flexibility, capacity and robustness of the overall system.
(3) Broadband Services. The system will be able to provide broadband
service at fiber-like speeds, the system's use of low-Earth
orbits will allow it to target latencies comparable to
terrestrial alternatives. SpaceX intends to market different
packages of data at different price points, accommodating a
variety of consumer demands.
(4) Efficiency. SpaceX is designing the system from the ground up
with cost-effectiveness and reliability in mind, from the
design and manufacturing of the space and ground-based
elements, to the launch and deployment of the system using
SpaceX launch services, development of the user terminals, and
end-user subscription rates.
SpaceX soon will begin the process of testing the satellites
themselves, with the first two prototypes launching within the next
several months. Following the successful demonstration of our space and
ground technology, SpaceX intends to begin the operational satellite
launch campaign in 2019. The remaining satellites in the constellation
will be launched in phases through 2024, when the system will reach
full capacity with the Ka-and Ku-Band satellites. The constellation
will be operational well in advance of full deployment, and we expect
to begin offering services commercially as early as deployment of 800
satellites.
SpaceX is highly experienced with cutting-edge debris mitigation
practices and has deep ties with the domestic and international
institutions tasked with ensuring the continued safety of space
operations. SpaceX has designed its satellite constellation to meet or
exceed all existing requirements for safety of operations in space and
upon de-orbit of satellites, and SpaceX is deeply committed both to
maintaining a debris-free environment in space and to disposing of
orbital assets in a responsible and safe manner.
V. Overcoming the Cost of Large Constellation Deployment: Launch and
Reusable Rockets
While rights of way and the high costs of terrestrial connectivity
for rural remote areas historically has limited the reach of broadband,
the cost of space launch has been the major obstacle to the deployment
of large-scale broadband satellite constellations. Affordable access to
space effectively limited the size of satellite constellations
operating close to the earth, where shorter signal paths could lower
overall end-to-end latency to levels comparable to modern mobile or
fixed broadband.
By rethinking the launch vehicles design and production, SpaceX has
driven down launch costs. Our work to recover and reuse rockets will
enable truly revolutionary reductions in the speed and cost of space
access. Every other launch vehicle provider in the world discards its
rocket hardware after each launch. This practice is akin to throwing
away an airplane after every leg of a trip. However, SpaceX has
invested considerable internal resources to develop and implement
reusability into the Falcon 9. Most of a launch vehicle's cost is
concentrated in its first stage. SpaceX has incorporated advanced
technologies that uniquely enable the Falcon 9 first stage to return to
either a ground-based landing platform or an off-shore autonomous
spaceport droneship after nearly every mission.
This year, SpaceX proved out this concept with the successful
launch and landing of three flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters, placing
high-value telecommunications satellites into orbit for commercial
satellite operators. Each Falcon 9 first stage will soon be capable of
at least 10 flights with no refurbishment and many more flights after
minimal refurbishment, resulting in significant cost reductions.
Dramatically lower launch costs and the demonstrated capability to
launch nearly every two weeks (or less) allows SpaceX affordably to
deploy larger numbers of satellites for its own NGSO constellation at a
pace not previously possible. Moreover, affordable access to space also
allows SpaceX to refresh the constellation technology over time,
driving down the cost of producing each satellite and making it easier
to add capability to meet consumer demand and dynamically react to an
evolving market.
VI. Policy Recommendations to Facilitate the Deployment of Space-Based
Broadband Systems Safely and Efficiently
As the Committee considers policies that could facilitate the
expansion of broadband access in the U.S., SpaceX offers the following
recommendations:
(1) FAA Commercial Launch License Regulations Require Modernization.
As noted, launch is the key enabling capability for the
deployment of NGSO constellations, as well as other satellite
platforms that are critical to expanding broadband access. As
such, SpaceX recommends that existing FAA launch statutes and
regulations be modernized and streamlined to adapt to higher
numbers of launches at a more rapid cadence. The current FAA
regulations were promulgated in a time when commercial spaces
launches were rare, and launch was primarily the domain of the
U.S. Government. However, as the industry transitions from a
pace of a few commercial launches per year to a launch per
week, or more, in the near future, and new U.S. launch
providers consider entering the market, it is essential that
FAA regulations be updated to avoid obstructing industry growth
and innovation in the U.S. domestic commercial space launch
industry.
(2) FCC Commercial Launch Spectrum Licensing Process Should be
Streamlined. The FCC licenses the radio frequencies used by
commercial launch operators during launch and reentry
operations. Because launches originally were assumed to be by
and for the government, there is no allocation for the spectrum
used for commercial launchers. As a result, the FCC must use
its experimental licensing rules through a cumbersome Special
Temporary Authorizations (STA) process. This process is time-
consuming for the applicant and the FCC, as each launch mission
may have multiple STAs for launch, landing, and various short-
range communications with the payload. Each STA is limited in
validity to a maximum of six months; and is approved on a non-
interference basis, with ``special conditions'' that ensure
frequency coordination with other Federal users in the spectrum
bands. In September 20, 2013, the FCC issued a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) addressing spectrum for non-federal
space launch, in which it noted that the STA process is
suboptimal as commercial space launches and other commercial
operations in orbit grow in volume and frequency.
The FCC's NPRM would remedy this problem by establishing co-
primary, interference-protected allocation status for
commercial space launch companies and would streamline the
authorization process through standard, clearly-defined
application and coordination processes. The growth of the U.S.
commercial space launch industry necessitates the development
of a streamlined, predictable spectrum licensing process to
ensure the continued growth of the industry and the effective,
efficient, and prudent use of radio frequencies.
This NPRM, now pending for more than four years, proposes a
specific allocation for non-federal space launch that would
allocate specific frequencies commercial space launch
companies. It would streamline the authorization process and
allow for a single, five-year license for multiple like-
missions (for example, all missions for the same customer to
the same orbital plane). The allocation would be secondary to
the Federal users already in the band, requiring the same
coordination processes undertaken now to de-conflict any
interference prior to each mission. Importantly, Federal
agencies have agreed to this change, and the agency that
represents Federal users of radio frequencies, the Department
of Commerce's National Telecommunications & Information
Administration (``NTIA'') sent a letter to the FCC in September
2016 stating that Federal users of the frequency bands under
discussion ``strongly agree'' with the proposed new rules.
SpaceX recommends that the Committee encourage the FCC to act now
to adopt the proposed rules and then move quickly to develop
implementing regulations that can allow frequency
authorizations to cover multiple like launches. This long
overdue action would save time and money, and it would help
with long-term planning for both the FCC and industry.
(3) Systems and Technology that Achieve Spectrum Efficiency Should
be Rewarded. The new generation of broadband NGSO
constellations holds incredible potential to bring affordable,
fiber-like broadband services to underserved and unserved areas
of the United States. Investment in advanced technologies that
provide spectral efficiency and operational flexibility are
necessary for NGSO systems to increase access to reliable,
high-speed broadband connectivity. How they share the valuable
spectrum resources will be important to their operational
efficiency and their ability to deliver quality broadband
services. Unfortunately, not all aspiring operators have chosen
to make the investment necessary to include many of these
technologies in their proposed systems. As a result, some
systems would not only make inefficient use of the spectrum
they seek to use, but also may prevent other NGSO systems from
efficiently sharing the available spectrum.
As such, the Committee should ensure that their rules do not
unduly burden more flexible, adaptable systems with the
responsibility of spectrum sharing with other less
sophisticated systems. Any such outcome would impose an
asymmetrical burden that is counter to the overall FCC goals of
incentivizing efficient spectrum sharing. Spectrum sharing
policies should ensure that all systems have equitable access
to spectrum, avoid any warehousing of spectrum by non-operating
systems, and incorporate sufficient flexibility to promote and
accommodate spectrum coordination among operating systems.
Given the advent of new space-based and ground technologies,
spectrum sharing is most efficiently managed by using highly
intelligent and flexible satellites, as this expands the range
of potential sharing strategies available to the operators
involved.
(4) Spectrum Use Policy in the Ka-and V-Bands Should be Revised.
When drafted, FCC policies governing the use of spectrum by
NGSO constellations--specifically in Ka-and V-bands--did not
envision the potential of very large constellations operating
in LEO. As a result, NGSO constellations are unduly restricted
from using important segments of spectrum as compared to
ground-based fixed systems. While the agency has granted
waivers for NGSO systems to operate in parts of this spectrum
on an unprotected, non-interference basis, this approach is not
sustainable over the long-term, especially as these new NGSO
systems come online.
Clear and reasonable rules must be developed to govern how
multiple companies will share spectrum among NGSO systems.
These rules are essential to the development and deployment of
potential NGSO systems. Companies have proposed widely varying
space architectures, ranging from highly-elliptical orbit
systems operating from 8,000-43,500 km that focus on Arctic
coverage to small constellations at medium Earth orbit at
around 10,000 km above the Earth to several larger
constellations operating in LEO at 1,000-3,000 km from the
Earth.
The FCC recently issued a Report and Order to update rules for
NGSO satellite systems, including deployment milestones,
geographic coverage, and allocations of radio-frequency bands.
The new rules also discussed how multiple NGSO operators should
share valuable spectrum, specifying that the preferred method
to address interference between two NGSO systems is operator-
to-operator negotiations. Where operator-to-operator
negotiations fail, the FCC recommended parameters to determine
where operators could interoperate and where they would be
required to simply divide frequency bands (``splitting
spectrum'').
Every NGSO applicant agreed that spectrum splitting is the least
desirable and most inefficient approach to sharing frequencies,
because it reduces capacity and services made available to
consumers. The parameters that the FCC identified work well
when sharing spectrum for downlinking from space, because
downlinks already have power limits to protect other services
so all NGSO systems operate at similar downlink power levels.
However, when applied to uplinks to spacecraft in widely
varying space architectures, the rules actually yield far more
instances of mandated spectrum splitting because no comparable
power limits exist. The wide disparity in uplink power levels
often yield situations that defy coordination.
The Committee should encourage the Commission to open a further
inquiry on how to best optimize spectrum use among non-
homogeneous NGSO systems to elicit further technical input and
regulatory consideration. This should include review of the
uplink transmissions needed to traverse across higher NGSO
orbits in a manner that does not create broad-based
interference to other lower-situated NGSO systems. The FCC's
inquiry should also examine the effect of beam-size on
interference mitigation, since large geographic beams of some
higher-altitude systems will operate without flexibility, and
essentially nullify the flexibility of other NGSO systems.
These technical inquiries should presume that the public
interest is served by multiple successful NGSO systems,
providing services to American consumers and using valuable
spectral resources effectively.
(5) Satellite Ground Station Siting Rules Must be Modified. As part
of its Spectrum Frontiers rulemaking, the FCC is reviewing the
rules it set out for the siting of satellite gateways using the
28 GHz range (Ka-band) frequencies, including gateways
supporting both geostationary and upcoming NGSO constellations.
The current earth station siting rules are a complex mix of
numerical caps of gateways per county, and geographic avoidance
of population centers and arterial roadways. These rules were
designed to balance the need to protect terrestrial operations
with satellite operators' need to deploy satellite gateways in
locations with access to Internet points of presence and
backhaul facilities. However, the metrics defined for gateway
siting are overly complex and difficult to interpret, and also
may actually have the unintended effect of deterring satellite
deployment in certain rural areas. Several satellite operators
have suggested new metrics that would remove the per-county
limit and recalibrate the siting rules.
The FCC should streamline the Ka-band satellite gateway siting
rules to reflect reasonable real-world deployment scenarios for
both existing and next-generation satellite gateway
technologies and their terrestrial mobile broadband
counterparts. The FCC should also exempt from its siting rules
those satellite gateway earth stations that operate under the
limit set to protect mobile broadband networks, including both
any per-county cap and population coverage limits.
These clarifications will maintain reasonable interference
protection for evolving terrestrial mobile networks while
permitting the development of ground infrastructure needed to
support NGSO satellite systems. Given that NGSO constellations
could help provide broadband access to millions of previously
unserved or underserved Americans, the FCC should adopt
spectrum sharing rules that do not unduly constrain deployment
of Ka-band satellite ground station facilities to support the
delivery of innovative satellite services.
(6) Maintaining a Safe Space Environment. Any policy environment
concerning orbital debris should minimize risk to space systems
without imposing an unnecessary burden on responsible actors.
Recent concern in this arena has been driven by the
proliferation of small experimental satellites (micro-, nano-,
and cubesats) that are not maneuverable; by recent debris
collisions and end-of-life disassembly problems with aging
geostationary satellites; and, to some extent, by the potential
deployment of large NGSO constellations.
To reduce conjunction risks, policies should be pursued that
encourage responsible and reliable satellite design and
operation from launch to disposal. Future policies should
balance a satellite's deorbit reliability with the risk of a
premature failure when considering whether to extend the
satellite's use after it reaches its design lifetime.
Regulations can encourage and reward manufacturing designs that
allow for easier tracking (e.g., tracking reflectors) and are
fault-tolerant and safe, particularly with respect to battery
and propulsion systems. Such designs would utilize materials
that diminish the risk of generating new debris from internal
faults, impacts with untracked debris, or planned de-orbit
reentries. Additionally, current international policy
guidelines mandate satellites have the capability for disposal
within 25 years; this time-frame should be shortened. Given the
diverse Federal agencies employed with space regulation and
policy matters, SpaceX welcomes the establishment of the
National Space Council and encourages robust inter-agency
dialogue to root agency policies in common objectives and
premises, even if the diverse agency authorities and space
missions under each agency's oversight results in distinct
specific regulations.
SpaceX also supports broad sharing arrangements among space
operators to increase the accuracy of ephemeris data and
mitigate potential conjunction events, even while space
activities expand. Expanded data sharing will augment reliance
on the space surveillance network for positional information
and reduce positional uncertainty, reducing unnecessary on-
orbit maneuvers. In addition to increased data sharing among
operators, the United States should consider investments in
orbital object tracking radars and other systems to enhance the
amount and quality of space surveillance data.
(7) Satellite Broadband Technology Should Not Be Excluded from FCC
Broadband Incentives. The FCC is currently in the process of
reviewing rules for and structuring the second phase of the
Connect America Fund (CAF II). This program, with awards
determined through a reverse auction, would support up to $1.98
billion in funding over ten years to support broadband
expansion to areas of need across the country. The Commission
has adopted rules providing different bidding weights to
different tiers of speed, usage, and latency applicants might
select. This is a reasonable means by which to ensure the best
service receives the most favorable score in the bidding
process, which is inherently in the interest of the American
consumer.
However, current rules preclude all satellite systems from
meaningful participation, simply because current-day
geostationary satellite offerings do not meet the FCC's high-
speed, low-latency criteria. Even if next-generation NGSO
satellite providers could provide equivalent or better services
than the top tiers outlined in the rules, these systems are
still precluded for participating. This creates a false
presumption that all satellite technologies are now and forever
unsuitable for consumer broadband, and therefore ineligible for
support in areas where NGSO systems are uniquely designed to
serve customers competitively and cost-effectively. Conflating
NGSO systems and traditional geostationary systems would be the
same as the FCC prohibiting fiber systems from bidding because
dial-up is not fast enough: just because both systems are hard
wired does not mean that they are equivalent.
The original CAF rules also require a stand-alone voice telephony
service, meaning that bidders for the fund cannot offer only
internet-based Voice over IP (``VoIP'') services like Skype or
Vonage but must bundle a land-line-type service. This adds
inefficiency and cost, and creates another bias against non-
wireline bidders.
The FCC should remove constraints on any qualifying technology to
participate, and update or eliminate the existing general
preclusion for satellite bidders. By doing so, the FCC will
demonstrate a clear commitment to results-based regulation,
with a CAF II auction that supports broadband in the areas that
need it in the most cost effective, administratively efficient
way. Moreover, the Commission will achieve this goal while
ensuring that every bidder--no matter what technology it might
use--has a meaningful opportunity to participate. In addition,
the Commission should remove the unnecessary requirement to
provide standalone voice service rather than simply make voice-
over-IP capabilities.
(8) Next Generation Satellite Systems are Broadband Infrastructure
and Should Be Included in Any Infrastructure Legislation. The
expansion of satellite broadband through U.S.-based
constellations is, fundamentally, a national infrastructure
project, even though many components of the infrastructure will
be in space. In prior investment rounds and through funds like
the Universal Service Fund (``USF''), satellite broadband was
often an afterthought. For example, of the $6.9 billion awarded
for broadband infrastructure through National
Telecommunications and Information Administration's (``NTIA'')
Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (``BTOP'') and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service
(``RUS''), only approximately $100 million went to satellite
systems, or less than 1.5 percent of all funds
appropriated.\16\ In many ways, this was the result of
limitations at the time on satellite capacity, high latency
rates due to satellite distance from the Earth, and relatively
slow data rates compared to terrestrial and mobile networks. It
was also related to a general failure of imagination to make
investment and subsidy structures applicable to satellite
infrastructure and consumer hardware, since satellite systems
have few ``shovels in the ground.''
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\16\ National Telecommunications and Information Administration,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
(BTOP) Quarterly Program Status Report (March 2017), available at
https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_btop_31st_
qtrly_report.pdf; and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Utilities
Service, Broadband Initiatives Program Final Report (December 2016),
available at https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/reports/
RUS_BIP_Status_FinalReportDec_2016.pdf.pdf.
However, as satellite-based broadband achieves speeds, latencies,
and pricing equivalent to terrestrial and 5G wireless
technologies, it becomes especially critical for Congress and
Federal agencies to reconsider how these systems can
participate in national infrastructure investment programs and
other Federal initiatives to close the digital divide.
Infrastructure associated with a satellite broadband system
includes launch facilities, consumer terminals that are placed
on homes or businesses, gateways that will be placed at
potentially hundreds of Internet points of presence (``PoPs'')
throughout the United States that are used to route traffic,
large antennas to track and control the satellites in space,
and satellite operations centers. The satellites themselves are
essentially infrastructure in the sky, a network that is not
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
dissimilar to cell towers or underground fiber.
As such, SpaceX encourages the Committee to take steps to ensure
that satellite-based broadband infrastructure is duly captured
in any Federal infrastructure, incentive, or tax policy
legislation undertaken to expand broadband access in the United
States. Such an approach will not only ensure that Congress and
regulatory agencies maintain a technology-neutral approach, but
it will also ensure the U.S. Government and American consumers
are positioned to benefit from the significant innovations and
great promise of that satellite systems are poised to bring.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your invitation to testify before the
Committee today. SpaceX looks forward to being part of the solution to
expand access to high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband
Internet connectivity in the United States and worldwide.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Cooper.
Mr. Dankberg.
STATEMENT OF MARK DANKBERG, FOUNDER
AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, VIASAT, INC.
Mr. Dankberg. Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and
members of the Committee, I'm Mark Dankberg, Co-Founder and CEO
of ViaSat. Thank you for the chance to testify on the U.S.
satellite industry and the critical role it plays in closing
the digital divide in connecting millions of mobile devices and
in our national defense.
ViaSat is an American success story. Started in my house 31
years ago, we've generated billions in revenue, gone public,
and created almost 5,000 high-paying jobs.
Six years ago, we launched our first satellite to deliver
truly competitive broadband services directly to rural America,
to airlines, and even to Air Force One. Though a space
newcomer, we're redefining satellite. Our first one had 100
times the bandwidth of a typical satellite; our second doubled
that; and we're building one now 1,000 times better than the
typical satellite still in use today.
The global satellite industry is valued at $260 billion a
year. The U.S. has the largest share. Satellite service is the
biggest segment and the economic engine for commercial space.
Advances in spacecraft and rockets depend on demand for
satellite services. Communication is the largest piece of
services, and broadband is the fastest growing part of
communications.
Broadband satellite demand has skyrocketed as media and
entertainment evolves from broadcast to Internet-enabled to on-
demand service. If you've ever seen a frozen Internet
videostream, you know the pain of slow broadband.
Today, we deliver faster Internet to hundreds of thousands
of American homes. We've grown without subsidies, competing
against much larger companies. We see the market work. When our
service is faster, people choose ViaSat.
In 2012, our download speed was 12 megabits per second,
above average back then. Our second-generation satellite
reaches 100 megabits per second, again, above average for all
U.S. broadband. We've invested heavily. We built our own
payload factory, employing hundreds of people. In 5 years,
we've invented three generations of satellites, aiming to bring
fiber-like speeds to Americans left behind by other
technologies. We're still designing even faster versions.
We're disrupting in-flight WiFi, too. Not long ago,
airborne WiFi and the terrestrial wireless link, so slow and
expensive, hardly anyone used it. We now bring satellite WiFi
to every JetBlue flight free to every passenger and with enough
bandwidth to stream video. It's so popular, there is often more
connected devices than passengers. We have expanded to large
portions of United and American Airlines, too.
We're exporting to international airlines. The global
airline industry sees satellite WiFi as the future, with over 3
billion global passengers a year, and over 800 million in the
U.S. We believe competition works.
ViaSat embraces the entrepreneurial spirit and competes
with the largest companies in the world. Now there are dozens
of startups and satellites in space, and we believe our success
helps to inspire others.
But there's a threat to American satellite growth.
Broadband needs spectrum. Our technology uses spectrum
extremely efficiently. And we helped the FCC open the 28
gigahertz band for 5G while still enabling growth in satellite
broadband by sharing the same band.
Yet, sadly, the FCC's most recent NPRM would take spectrum,
long allocated for satellite growth, and designate it almost
exclusively to terrestrial wireless. This is the 47 to 52
gigahertz band. We've been investing heavily in the technology
that allows us to use the spectrum in the next 5 years. Such a
policy decision would pick winners and losers, and stifle
competition. The problem is not in accommodating 5G, it's in
taking spectrum away from competitive satellite services and
creating exclusivity by regulation.
It need not be a zero-sum game. There is no technical
argument against spectrum sharing. ViaSat has put extensive
technical studies on the record in spectrum frontiers from
independent experts showing satellite terrestrial spectrum
sharing can work. There is no policy reason to limit
competition that can bring the best broadband services to
American consumers, businesses, and government users.
In summary, demand for satellite broadband is at an all-
time high. We're providing a service that is competitive with
urban offerings, and we're uniquely suited to serving the rural
Americans other technologies have left behind. There is much
more innovation to come. Technology markets are dynamic and
evolve in unexpected ways.
ViaSat is committed to serving all of America. We just need
the spectrum tools to do so.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you
today on these important issues. And I'll be happy to answer
questions that you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Dankberg follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mark Dankberg, Founder
and Chief Executive Officer, ViaSat, Inc.
Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the
Committee, I'm Mark Dankberg, co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, of ViaSat.
Thank you for lhe chance to testify on the U.S. satellite industry--and
the critical role it plays in closing the digital divide, in connecting
millions of mobile devices, and in our national defense.
I've lived the American entrepreneurial dream. Since ViaSat started
in my house 31 years ago, we've generated billions in revenue, gone
public, and created almost 5,000 high-paying jobs.
Just six years ago, we started redefining satellite broadband when
it was apparent that existing technology was not up to the task. We
designed our first satellite to extend urban-quality broadband services
to rural America, airlines, and even Air Force One. That satellite
delivered 100 times the capacity of a typical, satellite and today
provides 25 Mbps speeds to large parts of the Nation. Our second
generation design, launched this year, doubles that capacity, covers
the entire nation, and supports speeds of up to 100 Mbps. We're now
building a third generation design with nationwide-coverage, 1,000
times the capacity of the typical satellite in use today, and support
for fiber-like speeds. And we're designing even faster versions.
More capacity means better service. It allows us to keep up with
the growing demand for our services, provide even more customers at
urban quality offerings, and support the video-streaming services that
Cisco estimates will represent 82 percent of Internet usage within a
few years.
We see the market work. When our service is faster than the
competition, people choose ViaSat. This is true not just in the
consumer broadband sector, but also in the in-flight WiFi sector.
Before us, in-flight WiFi was slow and expensive, and hardly anyone
used it. We have developed satellite-delivered WiFi !hat serves every
JetBlue flight--free to every passenger and with enough bandwidth to
stream video. It's so popular, there are often more connected devices
than passengers. In fact, we connect over two million personal
electronic devices per month on airplanes. And we have expanded to the
United and American fleets.
We've invested heavily to serve the Americans others have left
behind. We built our own factory to allow us to do what no one else was
doing. And we're actively exporting this American satellite technology
around the world.
ViaSat embraces the entrepreneurial spirit and competes with the
largest companies in the world. There are now dozens of start-ups in
satellite and space. We believe our success played a role in inspiring
others. And ii is clear that advances in spacecraft and rockets depend
on demand from commercial satellite operators like us.
But there's a threat to the ability to continue this American
innovation and its ability to serve rural America. Broadband satellites
need spectrum to achieve these goals.
Our technology uses spectrum extremely efficiently. Last year, we
helped the FCC open the 28 GHz band for 5G mobile wireless while still
enabling growth in satellite broadband, by sharing that same spectrum.
Yet, sadly, the FCC's most recent NPRM would take spectrum long-
allocated for satellite growth and make it available almost exclusively
for terrestrial wireless operations. This is the 47-52 GHz spectrum
that we have been planning to use on our satellites in the next five
years. Such a policy decision would pick winners and losers--and stifle
competition. The problem is not in accommodating 5G--it's in taking
spectrum away from competitive satellite services und creating
exclusivity by regulation.
There's no technical argument against spectrum sharing. Since
there's no technical reason, there's no policy reason to prevent limit
competition, stifle the ability to bring the best broadband services to
America consumers and government users, and foreclose the ability to
provide services we can't even imagine today.
In sum, the demand for satellite broadband is at an all-time high,
we are providing a service that is comparable to urban offering, and
we're uniquely-suited to serving the rural Americans that our
competitors have fell behind. The key to our ability to continue to
innovate and drive developments in American technology is access to
adequate spectrum.
ViaSat is committed to serving all of American. We just need the
spectrum tools to do so.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss
these important issues. I would be pleased to answer any questions you
might have.
______
Attachments
Report on Satellite Earth Station Shielding Testing
Filed with FCC April 20, 2017, GN Docket No. 14-177.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Annex 1--Comsearch Report
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Report prepared by Roberson and Associates
Filed with FCC September 25, 2017, GN Docket No. 14-177.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Roof and Ground Mount Satellite Earth Station-5G Sharing Analysis for
1.8 m Satellite Earth Stations.
Filed with FCC October 18, 2017, GN Docket No. 14-177.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Dankberg.
And before I turn to Mr. Spengler, I'll just say we're
going to have a vote at 10:30. We try to rotate Members so that
we have people here to cover it, and we'll just keep right on
rolling. But thank you.
Mr. Spengler.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN SPENGLER,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, INTELSAT
Mr. Spengler. Thank you, Chairman Thune, Ranking Member
Nelson, and members of the Committee.
I'm proud to lead Intelsat, the world's leading provider of
satellite services. We have a fleet of 50 satellites, a
sophisticated terrestrial infrastructure. We operate the first
truly global network for video broadband that covers 99 percent
of the world's populated regions.
Our ultimate goal is a world with ubiquitous connectivity
and no communications boundaries. To make that a reality, we
have invested billions in high-speed satellite technology.
We've been pioneering satellite communications since 1965 when
we launched the first commercial communications satellite,
Early Bird, at the dawn of the Space Age. Four years later, we
transmitted the pictures of Neil Armstrong's first step on the
Moon to the world. Today, 50 years later, we're a public
company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with over $2
billion in annual revenues, and we employ 1,000 people here in
the U.S., with the majority based in Clean, Virginia.
We're committed to taking the next giant leap forward for
satellite technology in the 21st century, whether that's
launching next-generation satellites or preparing for
innovative smaller, lighter ground antennae.
While Intelsat is largely a business-to-business company,
our customers are in media, maritime, aviation, telecom and
enterprise networking, the U.S. military, and emergency
services. They rely on Intelsat to provide broadband video,
secure satellite communications, and mobility services. In
media, we distribute video programming for most of the U.S.
broadcasters and programmers, including CBS, NBC, Disney, ABC,
Fox, Discovery Channel, Turner, and HBO. In the air, we're a
major supplier of WiFi broadband connectivity for airlines such
as United, Southwest, and Delta; and on the oceans, to major
cruise ship companies.
In rural America, satellite bridges the last mile, where
cell towers and fiber don't reach. In Alaska, for example, we
help provide connections to enable telemedicine for residents
and distance education for K-12 students. And in the U.S.
military, we're proud to bring the Nation's soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines the critical communications capabilities
they need to carry out successful missions around the globe.
Satellite solutions are uniquely sustainable during natural
disasters. When fiber is cut, cell towers washed away, the
electricity is out, and other means of communications are down,
satellites remain in place in outer space. We provided disaster
recovery and emergency services to locations such as Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the recent devastating
hurricanes. We announced this week that in Puerto Rico,
Intelsat is working with U.S. antenna manufacturer Yenta and
telecom operator Liberty to deliver necessities and Internet
connectivity to residents.
This is an exciting time for the satellite industry. Given
the insatiable demand for affordable connectivity everywhere
and at all times, satellite is converging with other
telecommunications technologies to build one common
telecommunications infrastructure. Intelsat designed and now
has in service a high-performance, next-generation satellite
platform, Intelsat Epic. Intelsat Epic offers greater
efficiency in the use of spectrum and more powerful and
affordable services for customers.
We all know about the connected car. Intelsat is leading
the way with a satellite solution for the future where software
will be as important to our transportation as the latest design
features. Satellites will work seamlessly with terrestrial
networks in the connected car environment. Some applications
will run over the wireless network, but cars will get their
software updates over satellite. The broadcastability of
satellite from point-to-multipoint is highly efficient. Car
companies can update thousands of cars at once, and these
connections are more secure.
Satellite networks can operate fully separate from the
public network, dramatically reducing the cyber threat entry
points, making automated cars safer for all citizens.
Intelsat has also invested in and partnered with OneWeb to
utilize the power of a combined multiple constellation solution
that will enhance the worldwide connectivity for mobility,
wireless extensions, and military services.
Finally, in response to a recent FCC proceeding, Intelsat
is leading with a creative market-based approach in proposal
that will pave the way for joint use of C-band radio spectrum
in the United States without risking significant reliability
issues in interference for American television viewers. This
spectrum is highly prized for both satellite television
distribution and 5G wireless services to millions of American
homes and consumers, and we've proposed a solution that allows
for both sectors to flourish.
At a time when access to secure and reliable communications
impacts everything from the economy to national security,
Intelsat is playing a major role innovating for our Nation's
infrastructure.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Spengler follows:]
Prepared Statement of Stephen Spengler, Chief Executive Officer,
Intelsat
Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson and members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I am Stephen
Spengler, Chief Executive Officer of Intelsat and I'm pleased to have
this opportunity to speak on behalf of our company, our customers and
the many communities around the world that we serve via satellite.
Our Company
Intelsat is the world's leading provider of satellite services.
With a fleet of 50 high-speed satellites, and a sophisticated
terrestrial infrastructure, we operate the first truly globalized
network for video and broadband that covers 99 percent of the world's
populated regions. Our goal is a world with ubiquitous connectivity and
no communication boundaries. We have invested more than $2 billion in
high-speed satellite technology to make more efficient use of spectrum,
which enables more affordable broadband connections for businesses,
machines and people.
Intelsat has the capability to serve citizens and organizations
everywhere, from remote, rural regions in the U.S. to the world's mega
cities and to emerging regions that have been able to advance
education, health services and economic prosperity through increased
connectivity.
I have seen first-hand how broadband connectivity and information
communications technology can transform and empower communities. Our
investments in innovation and new services such as hybrid terrestrial
and satellite networks have helped to make this possible. Digital
connectivity and inclusiveness is critical to our ability to grow our
economy here in the U.S. Satellites play an instrumental role in the
infrastructure that enables this connectivity.
We pioneered the satellite communications industry. Intelsat was
originally conceived as a multi-country treaty organization at the dawn
of the space age. We designed and launched the first commercial
communications satellite, Early Bird, in 1965 and ``live via
satellite'' was born. We broadcast the first live international
satellite TV production in 1967, which featured the Beatles' first
performance of All You Need Is Love. We transmitted the pictures of
Neil Armstrong's first small steps on the moon. Today, 50 years later,
we remain committed to taking the next giant leap for satellite
technology--whether that's launching our high-throughput Intelsat Epic
NG next generation satellites, preparing for a new era in
lower earth orbit satellite constellations or investing in the next
generation of smaller, lighter ground antennae that you will soon see
appearing on planes, ships and other vehicles.
Intelsat today is a public company listed on the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE: I). We have annual revenue of more than $2 billion,
committed future orders of $8 billion, and we employ 1,000 employees in
the U.S., the majority of whom are based in McLean, VA.
What We Are Doing Today
We are largely a business-to-business company, but Intelsat
services enable many aspects of the daily lives of your constituents.
Our customers in media, maritime, aviation, enterprise networks, the
U.S. military, and emergency services rely on Intelsat to provide
broadband, video, secure satellite communications and mobility
services.
In media, we distribute video programming for all of the major U.S.
broadcasters and programmers including Disney, Fox, Discovery Channel,
Turner, HBO and CBS. Hundreds of millions of U.S. citizens experience
our services when they watch an HBO movie, the Olympics or the Super
Bowl. The cable industry delivers 1,500 channels to 61 million
subscribers through 5,000 ``headends,'' or key points of distribution
for cable providers. As a satellite provider, we can deliver HD
channels to those 5,000 sites at 99.999 reliability, which ultimately
costs the consumer only pennies. No other technology can deliver these
economics.
In aviation, WIFI inflight is so important to airline passengers
that it's become more essential than extra legroom. Intelsat has
invested in its global fleet to support the global aero and mobility
markets. We are a major supplier of broadband connectivity to airlines
such as United, Southwest and Delta through infrastructure providers.
We have made great strides to support these providers as they develop
new services for domestic as well as international air routes. Intelsat
also provides aeronautical broadband connections for senior government
leadership.
At sea, demand for bandwidth has grown exponentially. Just a few
years ago, a cruise-going family might have brought a single laptop and
a cell phone aboard ship. Today, cruise companies find that the average
family boards a ship with 10 connected devices. And they expect the
same performance at sea that they have at home in the U.S. The demand
for connectivity aboard a ship is a solution that only satellite can
satisfy and Intelsat serves major cruise lines.
Intelsat provides critical network connectivity for many businesses
overseas and even here in the U.S., complementing terrestrial networks.
Our corporate data network helps the oil and gas industry to operate
efficiently in remote geographies and ocean environments. They require
satellite services to connect to their rigs, providing not only
operational connectivity, but also broadband services that allow the
crews to communicate with family members while on location. Whether it
is transmitting data from seismic exploration ships, supporting
mission-critical drilling operations or employee communications,
satellite services are critical to the production of oil and energy in
the U.S. and beyond. Retailers use satellite to create customized
broadcast networks to educate their employees and for transaction-based
services, such as pharmacy and credit card applications.
In rural communities across America, satellite bridges the last
mile where cell towers and fiber don't reach. For example, in rural
Alaska, through a partner, we provide connections to enable
telemedicine for residents, distance education for K-12 classrooms and
virtual field trips for students to places like the Baseball Hall of
Fame, zoos and aquariums located in the lower 48.
We are also very proud to partner with the U.S. military to bring
the Nation's soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines the critical
communications capabilities they need to successfully carry out their
mission around the globe and here at home, both in the sky and on the
ground. Whether it's manned or unmanned aerial vehicles, communications
on the move, or social and recreational welfare, Intelsat satellites
carry the signal for our military and our troops.
Satellite solutions, which offer sustainable connectivity, are
unique in their ability to provide near-instant communications networks
in areas where disasters have crippled terrestrial infrastructure. When
fiber is cut, cell towers washed away, the electricity is out, and
other means of communication are down, satellites remain in place in
outer space. We provided disaster recovery and emergency services to
locations such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the
devastating impact of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Intelsat
provides the communications that are vital in enabling medical services
and simply connecting people to loved ones concerned for their welfare.
This week we announced that in Puerto Rico, Intelsat is working
with U.S. antenna manufacturer Kymeta to deliver mobile communications
to Liberty Global. Three vehicles, dubbed Liberty 1, 2 and 3 are
travelling throughout Puerto Rico for the remainder of the year to
deliver necessities and Internet connectivity to residents. Working
with Kymeta's roof-mounted, electronically steered flat panel antennas
which are installed on the vehicles, this combination delivers high-
speed, reliable Internet connectivity to residents, helping the islands
and their residents return to normal, day-to-day activities.
What's On the Horizon
The satellite industry is at an exciting inflection point. Given
the insatiable demand for affordable connectivity, everywhere, and at
all times, satellite is converging with other telecommunications
technologies to build one common telecommunications infrastructure. The
demand is ubiquitous and satellite is a part of the solution. To that
end, Intelsat has been innovating in the design of our satellites and
is advancing new antenna technologies. We understand that connectivity
is critical to economic growth in the U.S. and around the world and we
have invested in innovation that will ultimately improve the lives of
citizens and move our society forward.
Intelsat designed and now has in service a high-performance, next
generation satellite platform--Intelsat Epic,NG which offers
greater efficiency in the use of spectrum and more powerful and
affordable services for customers.
We have all read about the connected car and the autonomous car.
Intelsat is leading the way with a satellite solution for the future,
where software will be as important to our transportation as the latest
design feature. For example, luxury cars currently are designed to
include over 100 million lines of code--that's about 14 times more than
even a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet. Auto manufacturers are excited about
the potential of being able to monitor vehicles and their systems
remotely and provide simultaneous software updates to all the owners of
a particular model using the point-to-multipoint broadcast feature of
satellite. What a game changer to think that the car you buy today will
get better and safer as new software features become available. The
elimination of the need to bring cars into the dealership for simple
code updates will save money and time for manufacturers and drivers.
Satellite will work seamlessly with terrestrial networks in a
connected car environment, with some applications--such as nearby
traffic problems--running over the wireless network. Other
applications, like software and mapping updates, will be assigned to
satellite. Not only is the broadcast feature more efficient, reaching
millions of drivers with one signal, it is also more secure.
Whereas every wireless connection represents a cyber threat with
respect to a network, satellite networks can operate fully separate
from the public network, reducing the cyber entry points dramatically,
making automated cars safer for all citizens.
Intelsat has invested in our partner Kymeta which is inventing a
new type of satellite antenna designed specifically for the connected
car and other mobility applications.
Intelsat has also invested in, and partnered with, OneWeb. OneWeb
is a start-up low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite company and you will hear
from its founder and Executive Chairman, Greg Wyler next. Utilizing the
power of a combined, multi-orbit Lower Earth/Geostationary solution
will also enhance the worldwide connectivity for mobility, wireless
extension and military services.
Finally, we all know that with this ubiquitous connectivity demand
comes a relentless demand for access to more spectrum. Spectrum is key
to all communication services--satellite included. Intelsat has
recently taken a leadership role on an initiative that could bring more
reliable and faster broadband services to millions more Americans. In
response to a recent FCC proceeding, we have proposed a market-based
solution that would pave the way for joint use of C-band radio
spectrum. This spectrum is highly prized for both satellite television
distribution and 5G wireless services.
Sharing C-band spectrum under traditional circumstances can create
significant reliability issues and interference, putting viewing
audiences and other users at risk. U.S. media companies depend on C-
band for program distribution, whose characteristics allow
transmissions of pristine quality. But we recognize that 5G is the next
generation of mobile technology and satellite will play an important
role in extending 5G services rural and remote communities.
Our creative proposal, developed with Intel, provides a framework
for managed, joint-use of the C-band spectrum in the U.S. market that
may enable wireless and other service providers to accelerate their
deployment of 5G. Unless the joint-use of spectrum is managed in a way
that respects the needs of all users, companies that have invested
billions of dollars in infrastructure will be at risk. Whether they're
watching Monday Night Football or a Nickelodeon cartoon, American
television viewers expect--and deserve--high quality images and 100
percent uptime. Our proposed plan offers a win for everyone. We believe
it's time for the satellite operators and others industry participants
to embrace this opportunity to create more economic opportunity for
themselves, American business and U.S. citizens.
We are now in a productive dialogue with a number of stakeholders
to turn this proposal into a reality. We are grateful to the FCC for
its openness in considering market-based solutions that will result in
the highest and best use of spectrum and accelerate innovation in this
country.
Conclusion
We appreciate the Committee's interest in learning more about our
evolving industry and the impact the industry has on various customers.
At a time where access to secure and reliable communications impacts
everything from the economy to national security, Intelsat is pleased
to be playing a major role in innovating our Nation's infrastructure.
Intelsat is dedicated to envisioning the future and enabling
connectivity everywhere and anywhere on the planet.
Senator Wicker [presiding]. Thank you very much, Mr.
Spengler.
Mr. Wyler.
STATEMENT OF GREG WYLER, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN,
WORLDVU SATELLITES LIMITED (ONEWEB)
Mr. Wyler. Thank you, Senator Wicker, Ranking Member
Nelson, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify before the U.S. Senate about OneWeb's
mission to bridge the digital divide. We will spend billions to
build the world's first large-scale constellation and launch
our fleet in the coming months.
We will begin bridging the American digital divide in 2019
by enabling low-latency broadband coverage for every home,
school, and hospital in Alaska. In 2020, we will reach every
square mile of America. This means a brighter future for the
nearly half of Americans with substandard Internet access,
primarily in rural areas. This will be a foundation for
ubiquitous 5G service, the Internet of Things, connected
vehicles, telemedicine, and online education.
Our initial system, with peak speeds of 500 megabits per
second, is just the beginning. Our second constellation,
planned for 2021, will enable ultra high speeds beyond 2.5
gigabits per second, faster than fiber, direct to every rural
home using a small lightweight antenna.
We have a third constellation planned for 2023, which will
continue to increase our total capacity until we can support 1
billion consumers globally by 2025. In total, we look to invest
nearly $30 billion to achieve our mission of fully bridging the
global digital divide by 2027, and this will start right here
in the United States.
Today, total satellite capacity is a few terabits per
second. OneWeb will have 7 terabits per second in its first
constellation, over 120 terabits per second in its second, and
has achievable plans to reach nearly 1,000 terabits per second,
that's one petabit per second, by 2025.
Over the past few years, we have raised nearly $2 billion
from caring shareholders with industry and distribution
expertise, including Softbank, Qualcomm, Hughes, Intelsat,
Coca-Cola, the Airbus Group, and the Virgin Group.
To build this system, we needed to break new ground in
satellite development. In March, we began construction of the
world's largest purpose-built satellite manufacturing facility
in Exploration Park, Florida. This $85 million project will
soon produce 15 satellites per week. This factory is creating
250 high-paying jobs--high-paying engineering jobs--with
multiplier effects for the regional economy.
With thousands of satellites to manufacture, hundreds of
rockets to order and launch, and billions of people to connect
to our system, this is not easy. But today, OneWeb satellites
are under construction, the rockets are in place, and our first
launch is in May.
OneWeb was founded with the mission of enabling affordable
access for everyone, and we must do so while protecting our
precious space environment. I have spent the past 15 years on
this mission. It's a life's mission and one deeply held by all
of us.
In 2003, I began connecting hundreds of schools and
communities in Rwanda, building the first fiber to the home and
the first 3G network in Africa. With each connection, I saw the
impact on individuals and communities. I also saw the potential
of small ISPs and telecom operators, which is why OneWeb will
partner with, rather than displace, local operators and
aspiring entrepreneurs.
In 2007, I founded O3b networks, which has launched 12
satellites. O3b has the distinction of not only being the
fastest and lowest latency satellite system to date, but also
the only NGSO broadband system to not have gone bankrupt, which
illustrates the challenges and fragility of this industry.
This is hard, but we must overcome these challenges
responsibly. Together we must lead in setting the global
standards for protecting our fragile space environment because
the consequences if we do not are dire: space debris, reentry
casualties. These are serious risks which come from substandard
components and a lack of an adequate regulatory environment.
We know that a single impact between satellites can cause
thousands of debris fragments. At OneWeb, we recognize the
responsibility of being on the leading edge, and as the first
to launch a large constellation, we have taken great care not
to physically overlap our orbit altitude with prior filed
systems to reduce the risk of inter-constellation debris
creation. These best practices have been adopted by others, as
there remain many altitudes for safe space operations.
Ranking Member Nelson, Senator Wicker, and the members of
the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
We know you understand the moral urgency of this mission. We
know you see the issues as you visit rural townships and
populations where millions of Americans live without access. We
are not here to ask you to get behind us with CAF or other
government subsidies; we are here to stand by your side and
bring connectivity, jobs, and economic prosperity by connecting
people in rural America to their opportunities.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wyler follows:]
Prepared Statement of Greg Wyler, Founder and Executive Chairman,
Worldvu Satellites Limited (OneWeb)
Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before the United
States Senate about OneWeb's mission to bridge the digital divide with
our exciting new satellite technologies. This is a great time to
discuss our progress as we are investing over $4 billion to build the
world's first large scale satellite constellation, and will begin
launching our fleet in the coming months.
In 2019 we will begin bridging the American digital divide by
making low latency broadband available for every citizen in Alaska. The
next year, OneWeb's broadband will reach every square mile of America
and its territories, leaving no one behind. This means a brighter
future for the half of America with substandard access to the internet,
primarily in rural areas, and will be a foundation for ubiquitous 5G
service, enabling the Internet of Things, connected vehicles,
telemedicine and online education. Importantly, as a global system, we
will connect American small businesses to the 50 percent of global
markets that currently have limited or no access.
Our initial system with peak speeds of 500mbps is just the
beginning. Our second constellation, planned for 2021, will augment the
first and increase this speed, up to 2.5gbps, for every rural home.
Beyond this we have a third constellation planned for 2023 which will
continue to increase our total capacity until we can reach 1 billion
users globally by 2025. In total we will potentially invest nearly $30
billion to achieve our mission of fully bridging the global digital
divide by 2027.
OneWeb's capacity is more in line with a terrestrial system than
historical GEO satellites. For instance, the total GEO satellite
capacity today is several terabits per second (tbps). In comparison,
OneWeb will have seven tbps in its first constellation, over 120 tbps
in its second, and approach one Petabit per second (1000 tbps) by 2025.
Importantly, access to our services will be simple. The services
will be offered by local ISPs and telecom providers. The terminals will
be small, inexpensive, and lightweight so they can be installed by
anyone. They will be low power so they can operate from built-in
batteries or a solar panel. This unique aspect of OneWeb's system
design will be a game-changer for those with intermittent power or
those without power in emergency situations, rural areas and developing
countries.
With thousands of satellites to build, hundreds of rockets to order
and launch, and billions of people to connect to our system, this is
not easy. But we have made significant progress. OneWeb's production
satellites are under construction. The rockets are in place and our
first launch is in May.
OneWeb's System Design and Accomplishments
In the past few years, OneWeb has made remarkable progress towards
achieving its mission. As the first filed and announced direct to
consumer NGSO constellation, OneWeb has been a trailblazer in design
and manufacturing, and has achieved many milestones:
Formed in 2012, years before any other applicant, OneWeb
designed and filed for the first NGSO system capable of
providing low cost consumer broadband;
OneWeb has raised nearly $2 billion in equity from
shareholders with deep industry and distribution expertise,
including Qualcomm, Hughes, Intelsat, Coca-Cola, Airbus Group,
the Virgin Group, and the Softbank Group;
OneWeb is one of the world's largest launch purchasers and
has reserved and/or manifested launch capacity from Blue
Origin, Arianespace and Virgin Galactic;
As the first applicant at the FCC, we spearheaded the use of
NGSO spectrum combined with a sustainable satellite design to
reach rural populations, and received the first U.S. market
access grant from the FCC in June 2017; and
OneWeb innovated the first low-cost, high performance NGSO
satellites for mass production, leading to the creation of the
world's first and largest purpose-built production satellite
factory responsible for 250 new engineering jobs in Exploration
Park, Florida.
To build this system we needed to break new ground in satellite
manufacturing. Earlier this year we did just that, and our $85 million
specialized facility in Florida will soon start production. Capable of
producing 15 satellites per week, this new factory has also had
multiplier effects for the regional economy. For instance, this summer
RUAG, a space components manufacturer, moved its facilities from
Switzerland to Titusville, FL to be near our factory. Their foreign
direct investment in America is creating 80 new jobs in an area which
has been hit hard following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.
Figure 1: OneWeb Satellites Factory under construction in
Exploration Park, FL
Our Mission
OneWeb was founded with the mission to bridge the digital divide.
I have spent the past 15 years focused on this mission, one that is
deeply held by many if not all of you. After selling my first company
which specialized in semi-conductor cooling technologies, I traveled to
Rwanda, Africa. It was then a country torn by history and without
connectivity. In 2003, I began connecting hundreds of schools and rural
communities to the internet, building the first fiber to the home and
the first 3G network on the continent.
Figure 2: Fiber installation in 2003 in Kigali, Rwanda
With each connection, we saw the positive impact of community
access on education, telemedicine and opportunity. I saw children who,
for the first time, could explore their personal interests as deeply as
they liked. With local teams, we pushed the boundaries to deploy the
newest technologies in some of the hardest to reach and neediest rural
populations in the world. It was there that I also saw the potential of
small ISPs and telecom operators, which is why OneWeb will partner
with, rather than displace, local operators and aspiring entrepreneurs,
and much of our systems revenue will remain in the communities that it
connects.
In 2007, I founded O3b Networks, which stands for the ``other three
billion'' and has launched 12 satellites. O3b has several distinctions.
Not only is it the fastest and lowest latency satellite system to date,
but it is also the only NGSO communications system to not have gone
bankrupt. Today O3b, now fully owned by SES, is considered a success,
but there is an important lesson here. This is a fledgling industry
where failure is normal, and building these systems requires a deep and
passionate commitment for something more than just financial returns.
In 2012, I founded OneWeb, continuing the commitment to close the
digital divide. Today, I am glad to see the Committee properly
considering the leading role new satellite technologies can play in
next generation broadband systems which will have higher performance,
better reach and resiliency for emergencies.
Recently, Hurricane Harvey disrupted terrestrial communications
networks across the southeastern U.S. Hurricane Maria also brought
catastrophic damage to Puerto Rico, making cellular service almost
nonexistent after damaging nearly 90 percent of cell sites.\1\ In the
aftermath of these natural disasters, satellite networks provide vital
connectivity faster than any other option. And the faster communities
reconnect, the faster recovery starts. OneWeb's highly resilient
network will provide another level of critical connectivity to first
responders and victims when tragedy strikes.
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Challenges and Recommendations
Bridging the Digital Divide must include sustainable development.
This means bridging the divide without harming space for future
generations. We cannot overlap constellations in a way that would risk
creating space debris, or endanger humans on Earth by using less
expensive materials which do not degrade on re-entry. OneWeb has been
focused on sustainable space development since the beginning.
We know that a single impact in space can cause thousands of debris
fragments, fouling orbital altitude ranges for hundreds, if not
thousands, of years. The Iridium/Cosmos event is just one of several
costly, environmentally damaging examples. To prevent collisions and a
cascading of damaging events, large scale constellations must have a
minimum altitude spacing (MAS) for safety.
We were the first to design a large constellation and took great
care not to overlap any prior filed system. For the sake of future
generations, we cannot take the collision risk of overlapping
constellations. There are many altitudes available for safe, separated
operation, yet with tens of thousands of satellite filings in process,
overlapping may happen as there are currently no meaningful regulations
on this matter.
The last significant U.S. regulation on space debris is more than
20 years old. The international treaty called the Outer Space Act was
adopted in 1967. This has created a regulatory gap, and while many
countries are drafting papers, this is a place where the United States
can take a leadership position and drive standards of excellence and
stewardship worldwide. NASA is conducting a study on large
constellations due later this year, and at a minimum this can inform
such standards.
We have worked with the industry, including Boeing, to develop best
practices for an appropriate MAS. A MAS of 125km can help isolate the
impact of any single system which suffers a collision. While many
satellites have onboard propulsion and accurate station-keeping, we
also know that satellites fail, and when they do the potential for
collision rises. In such a case, keeping safe distances between
constellations protects against cascading events.
OneWeb is also pioneering the use of grappling mechanisms for the
removal of satellites. We will include these grappling mechanisms on
all of our satellites for future space tugs, and we hope to open source
these designs so every constellation may use a standard grappling
interface to remove failed satellites. The development of satellite
service technologies, like those at the West Virginia Robotic
Technology Center, will play an important role in protecting altitudes
from the many potential failed satellites.
OneWeb also pioneered new standards calling for de-orbit within
five years. We carry enough onboard propulsion to safely and accurately
de-orbit each satellite. We are glad to see others adopting this
practice as well, as it is crucial to ensure satellites do not remain
in the small and fragile LEO environment.
Related to the five year de-orbit period, we have also ensured our
satellites will disintegrate on re-entry. We do not use materials which
will survive de-orbit. While more expensive and more challenging, it is
the proper practice rather than facing the possibility of fragments on
the ground, and possibly causing re-entry casualties. While there is an
old rule requiring individual satellites to have less than a 1:10,000
chance per year of causing a re-entry casualty, this rule needs to be
updated to apply to large constellations that, unchecked, will drop
tens of thousands of fragments.
Space is an unforgiving environment. Satellites can fail, and re-
entry is always a concern. Just last year China lost control of its
Space Station Tiangong-1. Operating at 349km, its re-entry date is
predicted between October 2017 and April 2018. While this is only a
single space object, the largest fragments that survive re-entry are
predicted to be 220lbs. This is a near-term reminder that we should
keep a vigilant eye on space-related safety as we look to launch
thousands of objects over the coming years.
The positive news is that space safety can be straightforward when
thoughtful, common-sense rules are applied. Operating costs and
engineering challenges may increase slightly, but abiding by such
minimum rules ensures satellites will continue to play a larger role in
the Nation's and the world's communications ecosystem, and that the
American space sector will continue to grow.
We look forward to working with the Committee, other stakeholders,
Federal regulators, and others to address these issues and ones yet to
emerge.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee:
thank you for the opportunity to testify today. As you have seen, we
are on the cusp of bridging the digital divide using new incredibly
high-performance satellite technologies.
We know you understand the moral urgency of this mission. We know
you see the issues as you visit rural townships and populations, where
millions of Americans live without access to quality education,
telemedicine and entrepreneurial opportunities.
We are not here to ask you for Connect America Funding or other
government subsidies. OneWeb was able to raise its funding because its
novel technologies can sustainably achieve this goal without relying on
such subsidies.
We are here to stand by your side, and with many others, help bring
connectivity, jobs and economic prosperity to rural America and the
world's rural populations.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER F. WICKER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI
Senator Wicker. Thank you very much. And thank you to all
of our witnesses.
Mr. Dankberg, let me begin with you. As you know, I'm from
a rural state, and many members of this Committee are from
rural states, and we are very much interested in bridging the
digital broadband divide in those areas.
Recently, Senator Cortez Masto and I introduced the
Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of
Broadband Infrastructure Act, the SPEED Act, and it deals with
the permitting process for deployment of broadband. This will
give--this will help accelerate deployment in rural America in
such areas as 5G.
As you know, Congress and the President are working on
infrastructure, and we would like to deal with that as soon as
we get through with the tax packages, our next big issue.
What are your thoughts on how Congress can ensure that
satellite providers can be included in any broadband
infrastructure proposal?
Mr. Dankberg. Thank you, Senator Wicker, for your question.
We are very anxious to participate in delivering broadband more
to rural America. The thing that we would find the most useful
would be to have a technology-neutral policy which would allow
whatever infrastructure investment is made to deliver the
greatest amount of broadband service to the greatest number of
people with the best service at the lowest prices. That would
be our suggestion for getting the most value out of investment
that we make.
Senator Wicker. Well, OK. Technology-neutral in terms of
where we put the investment, should this be done at the FCC
level or according to the statute?
Mr. Dankberg. Yes, and one of the opportunities, and the
CAF program, the Connect America Fund program, has been
mentioned already. The Connect America Fund program has a
concept of a reverse auction where different providers using
different technologies could make bids to say, ``How much would
it cost to deliver this broadband to this area with these
features?'' And there are different technology attributes that
the FCC has looked at: one of the dominant ones is speed,
another one is bandwidth, a third one is latency, a fourth one
is price.
What we see in the market--and our experience in the in-
flight connectivity business is a good example of this--is that
the things that really dominate users' perception of the
quality of broadband is the speed of service that they get and
the amount of bandwidth that they get, that is, not having to
have usage caps that would limit the amount of bandwidth that
they use. And the next one would be, it's tied to both of
those, would be price.
So our recommendation would be to use something like a
reverse auction process, but to use market-based factors that
would reflect the desires of subscribers for getting the best
service that they can. And that would also allow the government
to achieve the greatest penetration of subscribers that is
possible, given that amount of money.
Senator Wicker. Are we going to need to amend the statute
on that, or does the agency already have the authority?
Mr. Dankberg. So far, our perception is that the FCC has
not weighted it in a market-reflective way, that the weighting
that they've put on latency is so high that a satellite
service--I'm going to give you an example--a satellite service
that would deliver one or two hundred megabits per second at a
given price and to more people would be penalized so severely
that a lower latency service of even 10 or 25 megabits per
second may be selected in the auction. We don't think that
those weighting factors accurately reflect what subscribers
really want in a broadband service.
Senator Wicker. Ms. Cooper, were you wishing to weigh in on
that issue?
Ms. Cooper. Yes. Thank you, Senator. We agree that there is
some review needed of any program that's looking at broadband
partly because you want every tool available to you as you try
and reach every citizen in your state.
For the Connect America Fund, we found for us the latency
issue is not our chief concern because we believe our low Earth
system will have latencies in 25 to 35 milliseconds. But we
found an area where satellites have simply been precluded from
bidding because the last generation of satellites didn't meet
some of those speed and latency requirements. So instead of a
wholesale exclusion of an entire category of technology, we
would just recommend that the Committee look at any of the
programs or Federal incentive or infrastructure programs to
ensure that anything that qualifies, any technology that meets
those requirements, can bid.
I would just say that satellites are sort of structured
differently in that the incentive is not to build the
infrastructure. All the companies here are investing and
building in the connectivity. The infrastructure on the ground,
whether it's to an end location, a terminal for the consumer,
or potentially some gateways to manage traffic, is where that
sort of scale is going to come in, and we may end up coming
back to you with some recommendations to make sure those
elements can be captured as well. But none of us here,
certainly not SpaceX, are counting on that investment in our
space constellation to come to fruition.
Senator Wicker. Thank you.
Ms. Cortez Masto, it appears you are next. The last shall
be first.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I
know my colleague Senator Sullivan has to preside, so I defer
to him. He wanted to ask a question.
STATEMENT OF HON. DAN SULLIVAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
Mr. Chairman, I just have one quick question before I go
preside, and it's to Mr. Wyler.
Mr. Wyler, you talked about space debris, and Senator
Booker and I have had some concerns about this. The Department
of Defense Space Surveillance Network currently tracks 22,000
pieces of orbital debris that no longer serve a useful purpose.
Can you--and perhaps, Ms. Cooper, if you want to weigh in
on this--can you talk about what your concerns are? And of the
Federal agencies we have tracking this, nobody seems to be in
charge. Who should be in charge?
Mr. Wyler. Thank you for the question. It's very important,
Senator Sullivan. One, if there is a collision of satellites,
we will--all the opportunities you heard today, all the
wonderful things we could do for humanity and rural populations
will vanish in the blink of an eye. We cannot have that. We
have to make sure that all of the satellite systems have their
own altitudes, that they're not all at the same place
physically at the same time.
And so while we're tracking 22,000 space debris, a huge
number of space debris was created at about 800 kilometers a
few years ago when Iridium and Cosmos satellites hit each
other, creating thousands of new fragments to track. These
fragments then hit each other again and create new fragments,
creating more and more space debris. As space debris numbers
rise, they will impact and have impacted many other satellites.
So the important thing to do, first of all, is to just keep
things separated. Make sure everybody is at their own
altitudes, like airplanes, or cars driving on other sides of
the roads. This is a physical issue.
Now, who should oversee this? That's a very interesting
question. Right now, the FCC does not have the tools to do it.
NASA is studying this at great length. And the FAA is looking
into it. It's really up to you, in the Congress and the House,
to determine what we should be doing next and to form some sort
of a committee and oversight and take the lead for America in
what needs to be done because we will lead this for the rest of
the world, which is asking the exact same questions.
Senator Sullivan. Thank you.
And, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to yield back full-time to
Senator Cortez Masto, who was kind enough to let me skip in
line so I can go preside. Thank you.
The Chairman [presiding]. Thank you, Senator Sullivan.
And we'll go to Senator Cortez Masto.
STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all first of all. Great conversation today. As
you know, I'm from Nevada, 17 counties, 15 of which are rural,
and rural broadband is so important. So I think this
conversation is incredible. I'm very excited about the future.
I want to follow up on the line of discussion that we've
had, though, about the use of reverse auctions and the process
that should be allowed to reflect the consumers' wants. And I
appreciate you bringing up C-band with latency and price.
Can you talk a little bit about how proposed satellite
Internet offerings and what they provide to consumers? Do your
proposed satellite Internet offerings provide consumers with
unlimited broadband access, or are there going to be data usage
caps imposed to manage that capacity? I'll ask all of you,
whoever. Yes, thank you.
Mr. Dankberg. OK, yes, I'll start with that. Yes. So we
have plans of both types, we have both effectively unlimited
plans, and we have plans that have usage caps. The plans that
have usage caps, we try to set the usage caps at levels that
most people would not hit. What we have found in the market is
that hitting the usage caps is basically the greatest source of
dissatisfaction for users, so in our new satellites, what we've
done is we've put--and I mentioned this in my testimony--we've
put more than double the bandwidth that we had in our first-
generation satellite and our second one. The third generation
that we're building is 10 times.
And the upshot of all that is that we're working on plans
that will eliminate usage caps for more and more of our
subscribers, that we'll be able to go to market with
competitively priced plans without usage caps.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. And that was my follow-up,
was, Is it going to be cost competitive? And that's the intent,
is to be cost competitive and do away with the usage caps is
what I'm hearing.
Mr. Dankberg. Yes, yes. That is--that is exactly right.
Senator Cortez Masto. OK. I'm happy to hear from----
Ms. Cooper. Thank you for that question. I think, like
ViaSat, SpaceX is an engineering company. We love solving
difficult problems. And the limiting factor here is the amount
of capacity that you have on orbit that you can share among
your consumer--consumers and customers. For our part, we are
looking at pushing the boundaries of the capacity of each
satellite and then, of course, having many of them, over 20 in
view from any spot in the U.S. So customers can aggregate
capacity where there is a concentration of demand and diffuse
capacity where those end users are different, more widely
geographically dispersed locations.
By building more capacity on orbit, we'll be able to
network--manage our network and groom our capacity in a
different way. We are still several years away from providing
customer service, so we can't answer with the kind of
specificity that ViaSat can with their existing customers, but
the real trick that we're focused on now is removing the upper
limit of capacity constraints that drive those kinds of network
management questions.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. I didn't know if the
other----
Mr. Spengler. Yes. Intelsat is a bit different than other--
others on the panel today. We are a business-to-business
provider, we're providing infrastructure to operators: it could
be a wireless operator that is looking to extend services into
remote and rural areas, it could be a provider of WiFi in-
flight broadband, or they use our network.
So our responsibility and our focus is developing that
infrastructure that is extremely efficient and very cost
effective, delivering the speeds that those providers need.
Senator Cortez Masto. OK.
Mr. Spengler. And so the end user customers are really the
customers of our customers and partners.
Senator Cortez Masto. OK.
Mr. Wyler. So all this talk of subsidies is confusing for
me as a entrepreneur. We've raised billions of dollars and are
raising billions more because we are building a system that can
operate and meet the needs of people, not meet the needs only
if the government gives us money to help it meet the needs.
Now, I cut my teeth in Africa building systems for people
who made two dollars a day, you know. So they, of course,
couldn't afford subsidies, but we had to build a system that
could meet their needs, right? Because in those countries, they
don't have anybody giving them anything. So if we were to raise
this kind of money to build a system, it really needs to be
able to operate without subsidies. It needs to be able to
provide services at affordable rates for the people in these
communities.
So that's where all the subsidy conversation--I think we're
in this point where it's like subsidy is a given, now let's
figure out how to dish it out. Well, why don't we invent
technologies that doesn't need--that don't need subsidies, like
most every consumer product people in this room today buy? So
this is where I'm sort of trying to figure out, I think we're
taking the subsidy as a given as opposed to saying maybe we
should have technologies that don't need it, and focus on that.
Senator Cortez Masto. And your technology is one that will
address the consumer's need and the consumers'----
Mr. Wyler. We're addressing market----
Senator Cortez Masto. Yes.
Mr. Wyler.--where the hardest hit--this is where I spent my
time--we're addressing the system to focus on the people in the
most need and to do it in a profitable way, to meet their
needs, and provide broadband that gives them oxygen-like
capacity. They wake up in the morning, they have it, they don't
think about it, just like we take every breath every day.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
I notice my time is up. Thank you very much. I appreciate
you being here.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Hassan.
STATEMENT OF HON. MAGGIE HASSAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Hassan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you and the
Ranking Member for holding this hearing.
And to our witnesses today, thank you so much for being
here and for the work you do.
Mr. Wyler and Ms. Cooper, I just wanted to start with a
question for the two of you, and, first of all, thank you for
your testimony.
I come from a very rural and geographically diverse state.
We're small, but we've got mountains, we've got seacoast. And
just a few weeks ago, thanks to the Chairman and Ranking
Member, we had a field hearing in New Hampshire to explore the
issue my constituents face when it comes to connectivity. And
one of the more humorous parts of the hearing was when one of
the providers said we have to be careful not to build
duplicative capacity, and my constituents were like we just
would like capacity, you know, we're not worried about
duplication yet.
So I guess the question is, How can satellite provide a
broadband solution for states like mine? And what's the role of
satellite in a 5G America, especially with so many of our
places, even though the maps may say we've got connectivity,
but in reality, our citizens will tell us they don't?
So, Ms. Cooper, why don't we start with you.
Ms. Cooper. Thank you. That's a terrific question. I think
it's the problem that all of us here are geared to solve using
different architectures and different technology approaches,
but I think it underlies the goal that all these companies here
on the panel have.
For us, we are looking at these constellations of
satellites with multiple satellites in view so that you're not
bound to one single path to reach a specific satellite. You
would have multiple paths to multiple satellites, which we
think will allow some currently blocked customers to have
access to an infrastructure of high-speed capability and
reliability.
And then the next step is to make sure that the customer
can afford a service that is appropriate to what their demands
are, and that's the next step, of ensuring that you drive the
cost down of making lots of satellites, which is I think a
strong suit of SpaceX and using our manufacturing and
innovation history to drive the costs of other complex
satellite and launch systems downward. So, and also then the
cost of deploying those systems has to be driven down,
certainly a factor of our launch heritage and our reusability.
So all those pieces bring to bear these two problems. One
of them is making sure you actually can reach the customer, and
the second is making sure that the infrastructure that you're
building that will be available, always on, is costly--cost
effective and easily deployed from an architecture perspective.
That's I think our approach.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
And, Mr. Wyler, did you want to comment?
Mr. Wyler. Sure. Sure. Growing up in Boston on the border
of New Hampshire and spending all the weekends there, I know--I
know your state well, and I understand the issues and the
challenges, especially when you get in the White Mountains
where you actually can't see through the mountain to hit
satellites. And so lots of people--and this is sort of the same
problem in Alaska and a lot of the northern states----
Senator Hassan. Right.
Mr. Wyler.--with a lot of satellites, you can't see, you
literally just can't see them.
So our satellites remain very high in altitude, almost
straight up at all times, so you always have a vision of one or
two or multiple more satellites at a time.
The key is the terminal. The key is to have something
small, lightweight, inexpensive. And the size is actually less
important than the weight and the cost. And that's where people
get--no one in rural New Hampshire, they're not going to care
whether it's 1 foot, 2 foot, or 10 feet. They're going to care,
``Is it cheap? Can I install it easily? And do I get really
good Internet access?''
Senator Hassan. Right.
Mr. Wyler. So what we're doing is bridging--we're flipping
rural on its head. We're making rural faster than suburban, and
so it's no reason that rural has to have that penalty.
Senator Hassan. OK. Thank you.
And, yes, Mr. Spengler.
Mr. Spengler. Yes, I just wanted to add to that. I think we
all believe that to bridge the digital divide, it's going to
take a combination of a lot of different technologies to get
there. It may be direct-to-consumer by satellite, it may be
enabling terrestrial networks in new ways.
But I think people don't realize today that satellite is
currently in the backbone of a lot of wireless networks around
the world who are providing 2G and 3G services in lesser
developed countries. And Intelsat today is providing 4G
services, helping wireless companies extend their network in 4G
in the U.S. So 5G is an extension of that.
And we firmly believe that when it comes to rolling out 5G
across the country, it is not going to get everywhere without
the support of satellite, and satellite solutions are going to
be essential to reaching those hard-to-reach locations and
extending those capabilities out there in the future.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
And, Mr. Dankberg, did you have anything to add?
Mr. Dankberg. No, I think that satellites today, if you
look at--we think a great model is satellite TV where 30--over
30 million people have satellite TV. And our ability to provide
satellite Internet basically corresponds exactly to satellite
TV, a competitive service.
Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. I see my time is up. I
have two other questions that I'll submit to you for the
record, one about planning for resiliency in the light of
natural disasters, and the other about debris in space, and I
look forward to your answers. Thanks.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hassan.
Senator Nelson.
Senator Nelson. I saw firsthand what satellite
communication does in a place like Puerto Rico, since so much
of it was--you couldn't communicate because there wasn't
electricity, even though they were bringing in temporary cell
towers. So I was provided a satellite phone when I went.
I'm curious as we're going forward, talk about the role
that your satellites will play with regard to something like
autonomous vehicles.
Mr. Spengler. I can start. So as I mentioned in my opening
remarks, we see satellite as playing a important role in the
connected vehicle. And, again, the connected car is not just
going to be connected by satellite, it's going to be connected
by all sorts of wireless technologies, as it is today, and we
know the cars are getting more and more sophisticated.
So it's leveraging each communication's technology for its
particular role and leveraging its strength to provide a safe
environment for cars and safe environments on the roads that
will ultimately lead to the fully autonomous vehicle.
What we're working on is a technology partnership with an
antenna company that will shrink satellite antennas so that
they're small enough to fit into the roof of a car, the company
is called Kymeta, and this will enable software download to
mapping downloads on a point-to-multiple-point basis to
thousands and thousands of cars at one time. Keeping that data
up to date is going to be essential for safety and enabling
those future features in cars.
Senator Nelson. And how does that integrate with the GPS
system?
Mr. Spengler. Well, GPS, of course, is connecting cars
today, and it already exists. And so it is all going to be tied
together through software and systems in the car at one point
in time to make sure that they're all working together to
enable a safe environment for passengers on the roadways.
Senator Nelson. And as you answer, Mr. Wyler, also bring in
spectrum. There's a real competition for spectrum by
terrestrial-based broadband services as well as satellite. So
what's the right balance?
Mr. Wyler. Excellent question. And I like that you started
this off with the first responder because this was actually an
initial focus. We put a lot of resources into developing an
antenna that would go on the top of a car or be built in, which
also includes LTE and 3G connectivity for the passengers in the
surrounding area.
And a unique feature of this for a first responder. So
imagine a fire vehicle, a fire truck, and you put the antenna
on it, and wherever you go, when the AT&T or Verizon signal
falls down, it's listening to the signal strength, and it turns
on in milliseconds, maintaining your call. It tells your phone,
``Hey, I'm here, I'm your local antenna,'' when the signal
strength is low, and then when the signal strength comes back
up, it automatically shuts off.
A unique feature of this is as the vehicles come together,
they actually know where each other are and form their own
network. So you could walk among the vehicles with your normal
cell phone and be using your current cellular operator,
whichever you have, in any country of the world.
So this would be unique and important for places like
Puerto Rico, for instance, and Florida, where a hurricane
comes, and every police officer and every fire vehicle and
every emergency vehicle will actually be its own cell system
with the resiliency that satellite brings it.
Senator Nelson. So, Ms. Cooper, now, there are a dozen
applications in front of the FCC for various new satellite
constellations. So what challenge does this pose to your
company? And how are we going to have coordination and
spectrum-sharing protocols in the future?
Ms. Cooper. Thank you, Senator. Part of that space
renaissance that I referenced is an excitement about using this
concept of low Earth orbiting satellites to solve complex
problems on Earth. There were 32 different proposals filed at
the ITU, and 11 of those companies have filed either to ask for
a U.S. license for their constellation, such as ours, or a
license to provide a foreign system with service to the U.S.
Not all of those will succeed. This is a complex set of
problems. There's an engineering and design and investment and
concept and bring-to-market problems that all need to be kind
of brought to bear.
Companies like SpaceX love to solve these kinds of
difficult complex problems, and we think we have a real edge
because we can draw through our design and manufacturing
technique and our launch capability to deploy this kind of
system.
The FCC has done a terrific first step to review and update
the rules for this kind of satellite constellation, which
hadn't been updated in about 15 years. And they rightfully put
the onus on sharing spectrum on the operators to share and
negotiate and coordinate. And if they can't come to agreement,
the FCC will designate and split the bands. Every applicant in
the round said that is the least effective outcome, is to have
the FCC dictate and divide and designate spectrum. So the best
outcome will be between smart systems, better incentivized to
continue to innovate, and incentivize to continue to
coordinate.
And this is also true internationally. The ITU has similar
encouragements internationally for other governments to apply
for systems to coordinate operator to operator, and make the
best use of the airwaves by applying those negotiations and
smart technologies.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Nelson.
Senator Gardner.
STATEMENT OF HON. CORY GARDNER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO
Senator Gardner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you all for your testimony and time today. This
is an incredibly exciting technology that we continue to
develop and that you continue to deploy, and I thank you for
it.
It used to be when I was growing up that satellite
communications had sort of a James Bond feel to it. If you saw
a satellite phone, it was the size of a cinderblock, and it was
really amazing that you could see that. We advanced then to,
you know, cell phone technologies and the bag that dimmed the
headlights on the car when you plugged it in. So then, you
know, we see this--what I think you've done is sort of the
democratization of satellite technology through broadband
deployment, and it's incredible, particularly for a state like
mine, where we have vast swaths of rural areas from the high
plains on the east side to the beauty of the mountains and the
valleys as a result, and some of the challenging terrain when
it comes to communication on the western part of Colorado.
And so, Mr. Dankberg, obviously I greatly appreciate your
presence in Colorado, the work you do, the hundreds of
employees that you have there. I appreciate what you do to help
connect all of us. My staff informs me they are not pleased
with your connections on in-flight satellite efforts because I
can send them e-mails and articles and they're very upset at
that.
[Laughter.]
Senator Gardner. But I appreciate it, so thank you.
In the 1980s, your business was started and grown
dramatically since then. You talked about in-flight satellite.
We've had talk on autonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle
communication, what satellites can do in terms of that. What
other areas can satellites provide for that unique niche, too,
as well as satellite technologies may be preferred in certain
circumstances? If you can talk about those two ideas.
Mr. Dankberg. Yes. Thank you, Senator Gardner. And also
thank you for your leadership on the AIRWAVES bill and your
recognition of the importance of satellite.
One of the areas that we haven't talked about very much is
our national defense and homeland security. And satellite
provides a capability to connect people anywhere and to protect
them. And there are many applications that we do for the
Defense Department with satellite communications. We identify
the locations of friendly troops and avoid fratricide, it's a
very important application.
One of the things I mentioned in my testimony is that we
provide Internet connectivity to the entire U.S. VIP fleet,
including Air Force One and Air Force Two, so that the leaders
of our country can remain in contact with the ground no matter
what's going on and get up-to-date information over the
Internet.
Another really, really important one is for our troops
overseas. And so one of the big advantages of the satellites
that we've developed that have so much more bandwidth than
conventional satellites is that we can make very, very small
terminals and put them on platforms like helicopters. And so V-
22, Marine Corps, now has the ability to remain in contact with
their troops while in flight at broadband speeds. We also
provide support for Border Patrol as well, whether it's in the
oceans or over deserted areas. All these areas are very
uniquely suited for satellite.
And then the other point is the types of satellites that
we're making are so new that the amount of bandwidth we provide
is on the order of 100 times that which is available through
organic DoD satellites. So the Department of Defense is a very
heavy user of commercial satellite systems, especially ours and
the networks that we provide.
Senator Gardner. Well, you think about the advancements, if
you go through some of the documentation of September 11, 2001,
and you talk about the experience that President Bush was
having on Air Force One while they were watching what was
happening on that day, they were relying on over-the-air
transmission, right?
Mr. Dankberg. Yes.
Senator Gardner. They didn't have a feed that could give
them consistent reliable communications to watch the news to
see what was unfolding. Now, of course, you can provide that.
So I think, again, just the national security component of this
is so critical and shouldn't be overlooked.
Ms. Cooper, you talked a little bit about the constellation
efforts that you're making at SpaceX. You mentioned in your
testimony that there will be prototype launches over the next
several months, and if you need the space for launch, we
certainly have plenty of space for launch in Colorado.
With the launch campaign beginning in 2019 with phases of
satellites launching through 2024, I mentioned the wide swaths
in Colorado. If low-latency, high-speed satellite
constellations were an option for rural constituents in
Colorado, it would mean obviously a big step in overcoming the
digital divide. When do you think constituents like mine in
rural Colorado, rural America, could benefit from this? Would
they see it in 2019? How long would it take? Would they be the
first to benefit from this? How would that look?
Ms. Cooper. So our current deployment plans have us sending
up two test satellites within the next few months so we can
verify the technology we've been designing and building from
scratch, and then starting our launch campaign in about 2019,
and launching the entire constellation over the course of about
5 years. So we would expect to provide commercial service, as
early as 800 satellites deployed, which is probably in the
2020-2021 timeframe. It certainly would be available throughout
the United States including in Colorado. As a Kansan, we'd like
to help you out.
Senator Gardner. Well, just don't take our water, that's
all I ask.
[Laughter.]
Senator Gardner. So just the final thing, and I've run out
of time here, is CAF-II, you mentioned tech-neutral language
for things like CAF-II funding. I think it's very important. I
didn't get a chance to ask that. I asked you and Mr. Dankberg
the same question. But I think that's very important, that we
have to make sure that tech neutrality remains a central
element of the work that we do.
Thank you for your time.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Gardner.
Senator Inhofe.
STATEMENT OF HON. JIM INHOFE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM OKLAHOMA
Senator Inhofe. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Being new on
the Committee, I'm not as familiar as some of the rest of mine,
with these issues. However, Mr. Dankberg, I have been the
Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and we
very interested in the applications that we have and that we
enjoy. How are we with our competition over there? Tell me who
else is out there that we're competing with in this realm.
Mr. Dankberg. Which other nations?
Senator Inhofe. Yes. Well, adversaries.
Mr. Dankberg. Adversaries? Yes----
Senator Inhofe. I won't make you--I won't ask you to make
that determination as who are our adversaries, but go ahead.
Mr. Dankberg. Yes. So satellite has been very, very
instrumental in use in the Middle East and in Africa in dealing
with ISIS and terrorists in terms of surveillance and
reconnaissance. The issue is that now we're dealing with
potential and more near-peer adversaries, and we have a number
of issues and vulnerabilities. And so the things that I have
described that provide more bandwidth to end users also provide
more resilience and jam protection to our forces in the field.
The good thing is that largely because of the American
system and the opportunities in the U.S., the U.S.--this is
really important, I think. This is an area, the types of
technology that you've heard from everybody on the panel, is an
area where the United States has clear technology leadership
over pretty much every country. And we do work internationally,
including all of the countries, including some that may
eventually be adversaries.
I think that making spectrum available and providing a
supportive environment for satellite will keep us in the lead
relative to all of our adversaries. I think we do have a strong
lead now in satellite communications.
Senator Inhofe. Yes. Where are we with Russia right now?
Mr. Dankberg. Again, so the Russians--the underlying
technology that we have described, all of us are describing, is
what's called spot beam satellites. The spot beam satellites
basically reuse frequencies extremely efficiently. You've heard
about that, LEO and GEO.
Senator Inhofe. Yes.
Mr. Dankberg. No other country has the technology yet that
we do for spot beam technology, probably a factor of 10 behind
what we've been doing in the United States. But I can tell you
that Russia, China, India, Brazil, all of the space-faring
nations are very, very interested in this, and if we don't
support our satellite industry, I feel that we could fall
behind.
Senator Inhofe. Yes. Mr. Spengler, did you want to make a
comment?
Mr. Spengler. Yes, I just want to add just something to
that, and I agree with everything that Mr. Dankberg said about
the importance, the tactical importance, of satellite
communications to military missions for our military. But just
maybe to take his last thought a little bit further. It is
vitally important that the commercial satellite industry is
integrated into the strategy and planning of military SATCOM as
well.
Senator Inhofe. Yes.
Mr. Spengler. And what we've seen over the time period of
recent conflicts is how critical the commercial industry has
been to those missions, and we think that it needs to be
sustained in a very resilient way, that we can integrate
strategies commercially and with MILSATCOM to provide this
leadership well into the future.
Senator Inhofe. OK. I appreciate that.
Mr. Dankberg, I appreciate also what you're doing in my
State of Oklahoma. We've got some 20,000 homes with you, and,
of course, when you put this on American Airlines, all the
installation takes place in my home city of Tulsa. And I know
that some of the rest of you are actually launching satellites
right now to reach some of the rural areas which I'm concerned
about in Oklahoma.
But, Mr. Wyler, I know that you're not--it's not the same
company you had when you and I talked before, when you were
talking about your activities in Africa, and it's a different
company now. Are you still involved in Africa? And I'd like to
use the rest of my time having you explain to me--I just got
back from Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, and I've kind of
specialized in Africa now for 20 years. So I'm interested in
the problems they're having over there, how I can be of help to
some of these countries, because they look to me as one who
might be able to help them. So would you comment on that?
Mr. Wyler. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Africa, obviously, I
spent a great deal of time there, and the challenges, if you
look at the 17 SDGs from the United Nations, all these
challenges about gender equality and water and education, every
single one of those challenges, the underlying requirement is
connectivity. You can't measure it, you can't manage it,
without connectivity.
And so Africa is just like America in our rural areas.
There is no ability to bring broadband because the terrestrial
infrastructure is too expensive. We still spend a lot of our
energy with Africa. We've been working with a lot of African
nations. Like the Government of Rwanda is an investor in OneWeb
as well as many other places around the world.
So we're--they're counting on us to help solve this
problem, help to bridge this divide, because the cost structure
of other technologies is just too high.
Senator Inhofe. Well, it's interesting you mentioned
Rwanda, because I had dinner with Paul Kagame just less than a
week ago, and he brought this up. This is a great concern
there. But go ahead.
Mr. Wyler. Yes, and he's becoming Chairman of the African
Union and leading the technological revolution of Africa. So
Africa is going to have more youth than any other continent in
the world over the next 10 years. It's growing very fast in
population, but it's also growing in economy. The economics of
each country is growing really fast, and they're needing and
utilizing more broadband. If we stranglehold that broadband in
any way, that continent will have trouble growing, it will have
trouble allowing the youth who are hungering for information to
experiment and understand.
Senator Inhofe. Yes. Well, my time has expired, but maybe
for the record, because a couple other countries have brought
this up to me, one being the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and
has a great deal of interest.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Inhofe.
Senator Peters.
STATEMENT OF HON. GARY PETERS,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN
Senator Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
our panelists and for your great testimony here today. It's
certainly an important topic and an exciting topic of the
future. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts here today.
This industry has been around a while, and we've been in
space a while, and now we have thousands of active satellites
orbiting the Earth with thousands more rocket bodies and
hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris cluttering near-Earth
space as well.
On top of that, the companies that are here before us,
you're going to be putting more stuff up into space as well.
And so we've been very fortunate I think so far, we haven't
seen any high-speed collisions, or a limited number of those at
least, but certainly each collision, as you know, exponentially
increases the odds of having other collisions as a result of
the debris that's thrown out there.
So, Mr. Wyler, my question to you is that your testimony
provided some detail about your debris mitigation strategy and
how it exceeds the U.S. Government's best standards, which you
cited as being outdated, that we currently have. Would you
propose that the mitigation strategies your company is
following, namely, the 125-kilometer minimum altitude spacing
and 5-year limit for deorbit could be followed as best
practices for the whole industry?
Mr. Wyler. Oh, for sure. Space debris, as you mentioned, is
a critical component. And everything we're talking about doing
for Africa, it will be gone if we end up with a space debris
problem because our orbital altitudes will be gone. So the 125
kilometers, which was actually adopted as well by Boeing, and
others have been keeping orbital separation, is really, really
critical to making sure that if there is an intra-constellation
collision where one operator might have failures of satellites
and smash into their own satellites, that those debris will
have a limitation on how much debris they cast into other
altitudes.
And your own University of Michigan students who now work
at OneWeb have done a lot of calculations on this to show the
tail and the falling off. So you have of looking at both debris
greater than 10 centimeters and greater than--less than 10
centimeters, and if you look at that, it really starts to dive
off around 125 and 150 kilometers, the total amount of debris
that makes--when you model two satellites hitting each other
using the NASA debris orbiting models.
So that separation is critical. It's just like lanes in a
highway. I mean, you can't be going in the same place at the
same time. So----
Senator Peters. Well, certainly, the benefits are pretty
clear, as you just articulated. What are some of the challenges
for us to be able to accomplish that?
Mr. Wyler. Well, I think it's really a regulatory question
because it's very easy to do, and there are plenty of altitudes
for people to be in. And everyone knows where everyone else is.
So we filed and put our satellite constellation out there years
before everybody else in terms of this renaissance. And the
people before us, the Globalstar and Iridium, we kept a good
distance between them. And so most everybody usually respects
the filing systems and says, ``OK, there's where these are. I'm
going to be away from them so I don't have a chance of any
erroneous issues causing a catastrophe.''
Right now, there are no rules, I mean no substantive rules.
That's why we don't even quote the current rules, because it's
really--it's really not relevant. They were done in 1967, so
the Outer Space Act, right?
So the big challenge is for America to take a leadership
position in this and then call in other nations and say,
``Other nations, this is what we're doing. Would you join us in
this? Can we talk about this? But we're already taking these
constraints upon ourself.'' And other nations will follow,
yearning to.
I saw at the FCC, because of all these different
constellations and ideas and concepts that have been sort of
put to them, the FCC has gotten letters from other nations and
other--the European Space Agency and other space agencies,
saying, ``Please don't--,'' you know, ``Be very careful. It's
not just your space,'' right? So we have to be careful, but we
have to--and it's a global world, but we have to take a
leadership position and have every--all these other nations
follow us, and we have that opportunity today.
Senator Peters. I see the other panelists shaking their
heads, so I want to give them an opportunity to weigh in as
well.
Ms. Cooper, do you want to start?
Ms. Cooper. Absolutely. I think you would be hard-pressed
to find a company with more invested in the future of space
than SpaceX. We certainly count on a space environment that
allows for future inventiveness and exploration, and we've
approached our constellation with that responsibility in mind.
I would just add there are a couple other elements to this.
We absolutely will participate and continue to drive forward
the caliber of operations and expectations for space
operations.
There are a couple other elements I wanted to add. The
first is, you know, the design of the spacecraft itself is
important, the materials you choose. The spacecraft burns up on
reentry. The compartmentalization of systems, that you can
maintain control even if you happen to get dinged by the harsh
environment of space, your survivability and your resilience in
space is important.
Your concept for how you operate on orbit is also
important. The ability to maneuver in that sort of sandstorm of
space, your plan for how to respond if there's a collision, and
how to deorbit at the end of your operations are all critical.
Finally, you have to know what's on orbit, not just the
other spacecraft, but the debris, and we would really like to
continue our conversations that we've been having with the
Department of Defense and with NASA on how to continue to
improve the quality of inputs, about our understanding of the
space environments, that we can maneuver smartly when there is
a maneuver.
SpaceX is designing our satellites to be able to maneuver
thousands of times in their lifespan, and we're bringing to
bear the reliability that NASA entrusts for us to take human
NASA astronauts to the Space Station to bear in that
responsibility of operating in space.
I know that the FCC is about to issue some new rules for
very small satellites, cubesats, micro-sats, particularly the
kind that are used for experimentation, and we think that's the
kind of leadership role that the U.S. needs to take, not just
for the U.S. environment, but for the global space environment,
to balance the role that space can take for research and
inspiration and also preserving that environment for future
activity.
Senator Peters. Well, I appreciate that. My time is
expired, but, Mr. Spengler, you've been--if you can be brief in
your concurrence of what you've heard.
Mr. Spengler. Sure. We've been operating in the
geostationary orbit for decades, and that's an orbit with
hundreds of satellites, not thousands, but--and there has been
defined rules on how to operate there, and it's required a lot
of cooperation between satellite operators to share that space
well.
We took the initiative with several other operators to
create the Space Data Association to enhance that engagement
with each other so that in that arc, the industry itself is
taking ownership and responsibility for sharing information and
making sure that it's safe and secure for the long term.
But now when you're talking about thousands of satellites
in a lower Earth or mid Earth orbit, it gets more complex. And
I agree with Mr. Wyler, I don't think we can just leave that up
to industry cooperation, we're going to need some help and
leadership from government to help make that a safe and secure
environment for well into the future as well.
Senator Peters. Right. Thank you for your testimony. I
appreciate it.
Senator Inhofe [presiding]. Senator Blumenthal.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm concerned about some of the reports that we've seen
from the intelligence community and other sources that Russia
and China and perhaps even terrorist organizations are pursuing
a range of anti-satellite technology, in fact, efforts designed
to threaten our military effectiveness and the satellites that
may be used for civilian purposes. Other countries are
aggressively developing the jamming and hacking capabilities
that could cripple our military technology and surveillance,
our navigation systems and communication networks. These
technologies can be unleashed on civilian capabilities as well,
including commercial satellites.
So my question to each of you is, How concerned are you by
the potential hacking capabilities of other countries or other
hazards that may come from them or from nongovernmental
threats?
Ms. Cooper. Thank you. It's an excellent question, and as a
company that operates one of the most technologically sensitive
activities--launch capability--we take this very seriously and
have deep experience and heritage in the protection of those
systems that we will bring to bear to this satellite system.
I would also note that the supply chain is a particular
vulnerability for space systems. And we have chosen to bring a
high percentage of our manufacturing in-house, and maintain
U.S. control of that, and we're proud that our satellites will
not only be built in the U.S., have high U.S. content, they
will also be launched on U.S. rockets from U.S. soil without
any involvement from foreign launchers or certainly Russian
capability.
Thank you.
Mr. Dankberg. Yes, thank you, Senator. I think it's a very,
very important question. Because we work with the military and
the Defense Department, we do get support from them on dealing
with especially cybersecurity, and we also provide
cybersecurity for defense satellites. So we have a good
understanding of what the threat environment is. But I do
believe that for a privately held company to deal with state
actors is probably asking more than those privately held
companies are capable of.
I think the U.S. has taken--has had dominance in space for
so long that, in some sense, we may take that for granted. And
I think it's not something that we should take lightly.
One of the solutions that we think is definitely possible
is the types of satellites that we're talking about for
commercial are so much less expensive and so much--so easy to
replicate, that that's one of the ways that we at least, from a
national defense perspective, can obtain some amount of
assurance that we'll have a reliable capability in space is to
use, whether in the geosynchronous arc or the in low Earth
orbit arc, multiple satellites that provide the capabilities
that we need so we can make the economics of damaging our
capability in space overwhelmingly expensive.
Mr. Spengler. As a provider to U.S. military, DoD, and
other applications, we have built our network with the highest
level of cybersecurity for those specific customer sets, and
have a regular engagement and dialogue with that sector. So
we're very familiar with the issues and the challenges. That
has even led us to design our current generation, next-
generation, satellites, Intelsat Epic, with some very specific
feature sets that manage and deal with intentional jamming and
hacking that can occur on tactical missions that could be
absolutely devastating if they're not dealt with quite--quite
quickly.
So it is critically important. There's no question about
this. And it's where we have continual focus in these areas.
Mr. Wyler. So cybersecurity is obviously very important,
but I'll bring up something else. China not that long ago shot
a satellite at 1,000 kilometers from the ground. They're not
the only ones that can do it. If you put all these satellites
in the same orbital altitude, you are literally shooting two
birds with one bullet.
Orbital spacing allows one satellite constellation to have
a calamity without involving the other satellite
constellations. So as the U.S. Government, which has been very
active in looking at how constellations can provide very high-
speed, low-latency connectivity for its troops in the field, it
should want--I assume it will want that resiliency and that
capability and that assurance of continued service, and not
make it really easy for a competitor or another nation to take
out the entire thing at one shot.
Senator Blumenthal. I think these answers have been very
illuminating. My time has expired, and even if I had another
hour probably, we would not have enough time to exhaust all of
the important ramifications of this area. But essentially space
is lawless right now.
Space is the Wild West, and it's vulnerable to cyber, to
physical interference, as you've just suggested, with missiles
launched either from space or from ground, and we need to be
prepared for the threats to our commercial and civilian
satellites as well as to the military satellites that we have
there.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Markey.
STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD MARKEY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.
We have come a long since Intelsat and Inmarsat had a
monopoly, and I always enjoyed back in the 1980s and 1990s,
break up the monopolies and to make it possible for there to be
more competition. And we have come now to a new era, and this
requires a lot of thought in order to unleash all of the
potential for good which is out there.
So, Mr. Wyler, if I can begin with you, you have raised a
lot of money, you are going to deploy a lot of satellites. And
I guess my big question to you is--the softball right across
home plate for you--what's the difference between you and all
these preceding companies that have tried to achieve the very
same result in space in terms of providing low-cost access to
the Internet to citizens, not only in rural parts of America,
but around the planet?
Mr. Wyler. Thank you for the question, Senator Markey. I
get asked this a lot of question--a lot of times. And why now?
Why can we do it now that we couldn't do it before, because a
lot of people have tried? We've known the potential, but we
haven't had the technology to accomplish it.
I think it starts--our system, as you had me testify 10
years ago, maybe 15, about deploying fiber to the home in
Africa, it starts with understanding who needs what, and the
needs of those consumers and those people in these rural
populations, and designing for the lowest common denominator of
customer. How do you build something that's affordable? We had
an earlier conversation about CAF funding and all these
subsidies. Why are we talking about subsidies? We should be
building something that's affordable in the first place, to the
GDP-adjusted cost structure of the environment that we're going
to be serving.
So what's happened now is that we're able to provide a
service that is very low latency, which is key to the 30----
Senator Markey. Very low?
Mr. Wyler. Low latency.
Senator Markey. Low latency.
Mr. Wyler. Low latency.
Senator Markey. Low latency means what?
Mr. Wyler. Latency is the roundtrip time between you and
the server on the other side. So you send a signal up to the
satellite, down to some gateway, some server, and then back.
Senator Markey. You mean it's fast.
Mr. Wyler. It's fast.
Senator Markey. OK. Yes. That's another way of saying ``low
latency''?
Mr. Wyler. Fast, yes.
Senator Markey. OK, fast.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Wyler. When you click, it shows up.
Senator Markey. OK, yes, I got it.
Mr. Wyler. And there are a lot of standards for this. For
instance----
Senator Markey. Our job is to translate into English all
acronyms. OK?
[Laughter.]
Mr. Wyler. Right.
Senator Markey. So that our constituents understand what
we're talking about.
Mr. Wyler. It's super critical for things like AR and VR,
which----
Senator Markey. For what?
[Laughter.]
Mr. Wyler. Sorry. Virtual reality--OK?--and augmented
reality.
Senator Markey. Yes.
Mr. Wyler. So the ability to create a videogame on this
table while you watch with your new iPhone, this requires very
low latency, this--this speed.
Senator Markey. Very--very--it can move very fast.
Mr. Wyler. Very fast.
Senator Markey. For reality and for augmented reality.
Mr. Wyler. And for augmented reality.
Senator Markey. Yes. And people can decide which is better.
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
[Laughter.]
Senator Markey. Reality or augmented.
Mr. Wyler. Exactly.
Senator Markey. Yes. We're actually living in that era
right now.
Mr. Wyler. 5G services demand low latency.
Senator Markey. Yes.
Mr. Wyler. So we've been able to create a system that is
designed for 5G services so that you can roll out 5G anywhere.
Senator Markey. So when can the first person on the planet
be expected to be able to subscribe to your service and have it
delivered? When do you expect that to happen?
Mr. Wyler. 2019.
Senator Markey. 2019. And where will that customer be do
you expect?
Mr. Wyler. Sitting in Alaska. Hopefully in Barrow or some
other--not in Anchorage.
Senator Markey. Yes. So you think it will be an American?
Mr. Wyler. It will be in America.
Senator Markey. OK. Where will the first customer outside
of the United States be who will be able to subscribe?
Mr. Wyler. We'll be covering Europe and we'll be covering
Africa, South Africa, and other areas around there. Also
Argentina and all around a lot of emerging and rural markets.
Senator Markey. So will all of that be in 2019?
Mr. Wyler. 2019 will be the beginning customers. 2020 they
will all be covered.
Senator Markey. So all of Europe will be covered?
Mr. Wyler. 2020? Yes.
Senator Markey. And not all of Africa, but South Africa?
Mr. Wyler. Most of Africa will----
Senator Markey. Most of Africa will be covered?
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
Senator Markey. Will it be all of South America or just
Argentina and----
Mr. Wyler. A big chunk in 2020. Most of--most of South
Africa--South America will be covered in 2020.
Senator Markey. OK. And, again, this is, you know,
commercial. And what will it cost the average customer to be
able to purchase this?
Mr. Wyler. Well, we're--well, there are two things: the
acquisition cost and the cost of service. So the acquisition
cost, if your antenna and your terminal is in the $100 to $150
range, you're going to have real trouble in communities,
enabling community infrastructure to be there. If your cost--
when I started this company, based upon my work in Africa, I
shot for, How do we make affordable Internet access for someone
who has a two-dollar-a-day income?
Senator Markey. Right.
Mr. Wyler. Which means 10 cents a day.
Senator Markey. OK. So in 2019----
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
Senator Markey.--in 2020 at the latest, you're on track to
get this done?
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
Senator Markey. And you're going to accomplish it?
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
Senator Markey. Your investors are prepared to run the risk
that you won't be just a repetition of what's happened----
Mr. Wyler. We have a lot of investors and a lot of eyes
watching us, yes.
Senator Markey. OK. And how many total satellites will you
have up there?
Mr. Wyler. In 2020, we should be able to hit about 800 or
900.
Senator Markey. In 2020.
Mr. Wyler. And then it will climb to probably another--
about 2,000 or 2,200 in 2021.
Senator Markey. So 2,200 satellites. When Motorola was
doing Iridium, they named it after the 77th element of
Mendeleev's chart of elements. They had 77, right? And so you
have just vastly expanded it with smaller satellites to ensure
that there is ubiquitous coverage.
Mr. Wyler. The key is making these satellites smaller and
smaller. The----
Senator Markey. And I think the key question I think for
Americans is going to be, Will the price that you're offering
in Alaska or rural South Dakota or Massachusetts, will that be
on a scale that is equivalent to what you're going to be
offering in Africa or in South America?
Mr. Wyler. So we partner with the local providers, the
ISPs, and let them--work with them to help them set the prices
and let them set the prices for the hyperlocal environments. So
the prices will change around the world, but it will be dealt
with--the prices will be managed by the local--the local
Internet service providers.
Senator Markey. So you're saying you will be partnering
with Comcast and AT&T in the United States in order to set the
price for American consumers?
Mr. Wyler. That's a great question. They don't cover most
of the United States. So we'll be partnering with a lot of
other people. And we're happy to also partner with them, but
there will be competition between the partners----
Senator Markey. So you're saying in the parts of America
where you're going to target, it will be mostly those areas
unserved by those large ISPs, and as a result, you'll be
partnering with the smaller companies----
Mr. Wyler. Yes.
Senator Markey.--in smaller towns all across the country
and trying to devise a price point that will bring a profit to
the ISP and to you.
Mr. Wyler. Correct, and to hopefully spur new ISPs and new
entrepreneurship in those regions.
Senator Markey. Right. So that very----
Do you mind, Mr. Chairman, just so I can understand?
The Chairman. [Shaking head no.]
Senator Markey. I appreciate it. So this very low price
point that you mentioned earlier for, let's say, Africa or
South America, is that also going to be something that you're
seeking to achieve that to be the lowest cost provider,
comparatively speaking, across the United States?
Mr. Wyler. Yes. We're seeking to be affordable for
everybody in every state, and so we will hopefully be the
lowest cost provider. The price will change. It may not be that
low in some states, but it will be affordable to the people
with their local GDP.
Senator Markey. Mm-hmm. Do you have already existing
contracts with those ISPs, or are they to be negotiated in
the----
Mr. Wyler. We have a number of MOUs already with them that
were set up and ready to go. If you look at our investor base,
which includes Hughes and includes Softbank, which has a number
of telecom companies, including Sprint, we're working very
closely to make sure we can get rural coverage. It's a passion
and a drive and what we're going to succeed.
Senator Markey. So do you already know what that price
point is going to be because of the already negotiated
contracts?
Mr. Wyler. We know that we have the flexibility for that
price point to move to what is affordable within the regions.
Senator Markey. Uh-huh.
Mr. Wyler. So we actually took a very unique approach to
this. Rather than saying, OK, it's $30 a month or $50 a month,
we've said, ``OK, let's work together in your region for your
area and let you set the price because you're the expert about
what's going on in rural South Dakota, you know what the
farmers there can afford and what they can pay and what the
competitive prices are.''
Senator Markey. Yes. And so--and, finally, is the service
which these people are going to receive comparable to the
service that people receive in Boston?
Mr. Wyler. I--speaking as a customer of someone in Boston,
I don't want to achieve that, better.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Wyler. So watching the circle go around.
Senator Markey. No, I hear you.
Mr. Wyler. So we've designed a system that really uses
spectrum very efficiently. We're actually asking the question,
Why can't rural be faster? So we're shooting for 2021 to
achieve 2.5 gigabits per second of capacity direct to a rural
home. So there should be no--in the new technological age,
there should be no penalty for being in rural populations.
Those people who want to stay there and want to be educated and
want to stay with their parents and build businesses should be
able to, and that's what we're trying to achieve, and I think
we are.
Senator Markey. Well, I saw what you did in Rwanda. You
came and we had you testify. It was an incredible concept. You
executed it, and it transformed Rwanda. OK? No one would have
ever thought broadband in Rwanda would work so successfully.
It's really transformed their future. Hopefully here this
concept also is executed because I think the potential is
unlimited in terms of transforming information and competition,
not just in the United States, but around the planet. So thank
you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Markey. And I'm glad you
settled once and for all what latency actually is.
[Laughter.]
The Chairman. We have a whole new way of explaining
speeding tickets in this country, using high latency--low
latency.
Let me just ask a couple of general questions as we wrap up
here, to all of you, and feel free to jump in here. What are
the major factors right now that are affecting investment in
next-generation satellite technology?
Ms. Cooper.
Ms. Cooper. So at SpaceX, we're not at this point going out
to seek outside investment for this project. But I would say
the capability to undertake a complex problem is definitely a
differentiating factor, the ability to not only conceive of it,
but actually deploy the manufacturing design that's responsible
and undertake the space operations in a way that preserves the
space environment I think are going to be rewarded.
I think the work that my colleagues here on the panel have
done in terms of advancing the caliber of satellite services
continuously over the last few years has also generated an
enormous amount of investment interest and excitement about
what the space environment and what the satellite sector can
do.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Anybody else?
Mr. Dankberg. I think there are really two factors. One is
this notion of a space renaissance where there has been a large
increase in investment in space I think is absolutely true. You
see a lot of startups. One of the big reasons is because there
are companies working on reducing the cost of access to space,
and that's basically democratizing the environment.
But there are, I would say, two issues. The number one
issue is access to spectrum. For communications, no
communications system can really achieve the level of cost
effectiveness and performance that we want and the level of
competition Senator Markey has raised without access to
spectrum.
And I think that the real issue here is not dedicating
spectrum only to satellite at the detriment of some other, it's
really working on sharing because there is a finite amount of
spectrum, and that is a very, very important area.
I'll tell you, at the next level down, and it's not quite
as important, is the one that we touched on a little bit here,
which is the question of subsidies. And the real issue of
subsidies, I kind of agree with Greg, is that we work on a free
market basis. We don't expect subsidies in order to be able to
provide a good broadband product at a competitive price
anywhere in the U.S. We can do that without subsidies.
I do think that we should think about what the effect is of
subsidies on market distortion and how that reflects what it is
that the market really wants, and I think that's--I wouldn't
put that at the level of the spectrum issue, but it's something
I think for the government to consider.
The Chairman. OK.
Mr. Spengler. What we've encountered in recent years, and
it has been said many times today, is this renaissance in space
and satellite communications, and as a result, there is robust
investment. There is robust investment in innovation, there are
sources of capital that are supporting investment, and I think
that all ties to the recognition that the future network is an
integrated network, it's a single network, it is a telecom
network that will have many parts to it: satellite, wireless,
fiber. And so it is really driving a lot of this innovation
that's happening.
I think the next big area for enhanced investment and free
market investment is really on the ground technologies. And it
has been referenced a few times today, investments have been
made on satellites and enhancing the performance, the cost, but
we also have to continue to invest on the ground--the
terminals, the user devices that customers have, to make them
smaller, cheaper, simpler to install, and easy--and that way
we'll be fully integrated.
The Chairman. Mr. Wyler.
Mr. Wyler. So as the only sort of startup in the room,
we've had to go out and raise our share of capital, and we have
a very wide and broad base of investors. I'll say sort of the
two big things.
Spectrum certainty, spectrum certainty, spectrum certainty,
and repeat that so we know it. We should not play with
spectrum. You should not play with people's foundations. If you
went to Verizon and said, ``We're thinking about taking back
the 700 megahertz,'' or whatever, the 1.9, you know, ``maybe it
would just halt investment overnight.''
Don't play with the spectrum. This stuff that we're doing
takes 7 years to build and tens of billions of dollars to do it
at the scale we're talking about. If you play with spectrum,
you play with the investors' understanding and viewpoint of the
solidity of your project, which already has many other
dynamics.
The second thing is space debris. If there's an accident in
space, you will see a halt to investment. So unless we take a
leading position on this--and it's not just from the U.S., lots
of people can launch satellites, we need to take a leading
position in the U.S. and have all other countries work with us,
and they're eager to do so, so that we can keep satellites in
their own lanes, because if they hit, the whole thing is gone.
The Chairman. Right.
Mr. Wyler. So these are the places where you, on your
bench, in your position, are speaking not just for investment
for the future, but you're the voice of the people with no way
to speak, the people in the future generations who also want to
have access to space, the people in the rural populations who
know that this is the only way they're going to get broadband
that's equivalent or better than that in the suburbs, and be
part of the rest of the world and be part of the rest of
America economically and socially.
So those are the two things: spectrum certainty and space
debris certainty.
The Chairman. All of you have talked about how the
satellite constellations that you have proposed are raising a
number of issues for the FCC and for various other
international entities. But do you feel that the FCC has the
tools currently that it needs to properly address the issues
that are raised by satellite constellations along the lines of
what you proposed today?
Ms. Cooper. I would just say I think the FCC has done a
laudable job in a very complex issue area. They have just
undertaken an update of the rules for these kinds of
constellations that had been sort of dormant since the last
generation of low Earth orbiting satellites. Those rules will
give us a much better platform to kind of pivot to this next
newer unfolding generation. They did things like extending the
milestones by which you need to deploy a constellation, which
is especially important if you have larger constellations. And
as ViaSat has noted, the ability to be able to deploy those is
contingent on launch capability, which is something we feel
very strongly about our capabilities there.
They've also really laid the expectations in terms of
sharing spectrum to be firmly on the operators to try and
figure out how to interoperate with each other, interoperate
and protect the satellites that are above us, and also make
sure that we can work with the terrestrial operators.
The thing that I would say that would be most useful, I
think, from the Committee in terms of the Commission is to make
sure there's a reflection of this opportunity with space-based
systems in the expectations of spectrum, that there are two
kind of key underlying principles. One is you should use,
avail, every technology that's possible to try and be a more
efficient user of the spectrum, and also be incentivized for
any group of parties, whether it's terrestrial and satellite or
within the satellite sector at different orbital hierarchies to
try to apply technology for spectrum sharing. That's going to
serve the American consumer better because you'll get better
services through the same amount of frequency bands. I think
those are the two principles that the FCC is going to benefit
from in terms of direction from this Committee.
On space debris, I think the recommendation for the
agencies to work together and pool their common and diverse
experiences to continue to evolve that sort of foremost role of
the U.S. in terms of maintaining a safe environment, that's a
successful next step. We were pleased to see the formation of
the National Space Council, we're pleased to have participation
in the first meeting, and expect to be involved in every one of
the agencies that's active in space policy.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thanks.
Yes, go ahead quickly.
Mr. Dankberg. I think the FCC certainly has the skills and
the resources to manage spectrum. And one of the things that's
helped us is the FCC's willingness to entertain new spectrum-
sharing strategies within the satellite sector itself. That was
part of what made our satellites more effective. And then also
recently with the 28 gigahertz spectrum frontiers, the FCC--and
we did reach agreement on spectrum sharing between terrestrial
5G and satellite, so we know that's possible.
I think that especially recently there has been a very
strong focus on 5G wireless and the FCC, possibly to the
detriment of other technologies, satellite being one. The other
one that I would put in a plug for, and this really goes to
some of Senator Markey's questions, is we're a little bit
unique because we are a direct retailer.
So we not only drive down the cost of delivering broadband,
but we then set the prices to our subscribers. And in dealing
with--we also deal in Mexico, where we can provide broadband at
the price points today that Mr. Wyler was talking about in
Africa.
The thing that makes that possible is unlicensed spectrum
because when we deliver bandwidth through other carriers,
they're the ones, as Mr. Wyler said, that are setting the price
points. With the access to unlicensed spectrum, we can go to
Native Americans, Indian reservations, national parks, and
deliver services directly to people's phones with unlicensed
spectrum. And that's an area that there is really not a very
strong advocacy within the FCC. I think that that's one area
that could use more support.
The Chairman. OK.
Mr. Spengler. I think the FCC, like a lot of regulators
that are dealing in the digital world have challenges because
things are moving so fast, there is so much change, and I think
that's where industry and the private sector and the market can
be of benefit in terms of helping solve some of these
challenges.
We're coming to the FCC with all kinds of new models that
we haven't gone to before where we're talking about partnering
with different satellite operators, different kinds of
arrangements, and it's all to develop new services for
different parts of the world, and in the U.S. in particular.
We recently responded to a Notice of Inquiry from the FCC
on the C-band. And the C-band right now, back to some of the
comments that have been made, is being sought after by the
wireless industry. Currently, it's being used by satellite
broadcasters to distribute programming to cable head ends, to
retransmitters all around the country, and millions of
Americans get their television through the C-band distribution.
What we've done is we said, look, we don't believe that
sharing can work in the traditional sense, and we proposed a
new solution, and we proposed a solution with Intel saying let
the industry work on this together, let the market decide how
we can free up spectrum in that band to allow the growth of 5G
wireless, which we believe in, we all want that happen, but
also give some certainty and surety to the broadcasters and the
television viewers around the country, a scheme where there's
joint use, that the market can decide the best way to clear
that spectrum, and that we can bring a solution to the FCC.
They have a lot of things on their plate, and this is one that
the industry could potentially solve together in this
particular case.
The Chairman. Mr. Wyler.
Mr. Wyler. I'd actually slightly disagree with Mr.
Dankberg. The FCC is probably underresourced in some areas.
Just a slight disagreement there. Generally, they've been doing
an excellent job. There are places where they are just
overwhelmed with new technologies and new ideas, and in this
digital age, that changes so fast.
Certainly, I'll just--you know, in the latest proceeding,
the ability for NGSOs to interfere with GSOs, they've just
given us sort of a hall pass and said, ``Go ahead and work it
out later.'' It's kind of interesting because they're supposed
to protect the GSOs. Now, being on the beneficial side of that,
I shouldn't be saying anything bad about it, but I think it's a
bit--it was generous, let's say, and unexpected to let us do
that.
I think in terms of space debris, they are trying, they
really are. They're putting out questions to people with kind
of everybody has got these different ideas with how they're
going to put their--where they're going to put their satellites
and whether they're going to crash into each other or not, and
people--and they're asking them for more data. But they're not
equipped for that, they're not designed for space debris,
because they're a spectrum--they're spectrum focused, right?
They're in electrons, not in physical objects hitting each
other.
So some committee, some way of giving them some tool with
NASA, with the FAA, with others, maybe a Presidential
commission, maybe a congressional or Senate commission, I don't
know, but some way of giving them some oversight and some
support in dealing with this because right now, since--
basically their arms are tied, they're frozen, they don't know
what to do with it because there is no good answer with the
current--if you launched all these satellites, you'll
definitely have space debris. So now what do they do? And who's
in charge of that?
The Chairman. OK. Got it. All right. Well, thank you all.
And I appreciate very much your----
Senator Markey. Can I just ask one question?
The Chairman. Yes.
Senator Markey. Your questions have been great, so it just
prompted one question, which goes back to Mr. Dankberg on the
historic role of unlicensed spectrum and what you think that
role should be in this space right now. Can you talk about that
just for a minute, please?
Mr. Dankberg. Yes. Thank you. One of the things--if you
look at some of the things that are really different in the
satellite industry compared to, say, 5 or 10 years ago, there
are two that are big ones.
One is--and the history of Intelsat shows most of the time
satellite companies had to work through other telecom providers
because their customers were the telephone companies or the
wireless carriers.
The other one is if you wanted to provide video
transmission, you had to work with a content owner or a TV
station for distribution. What's really different now and is
very liberating in the satellite industry is that you have
million--you have billions of phones going around which have
WiFi capability. So now a satellite operator, if they can
deliver a transmission at lower cost than a terrestrial
operator, you can create real competition by going to them
through unlicensed spectrum, but only if that unlicensed
spectrum is truly available and has the ability to reach those
people.
The other big, big change is that now you're seeing these
over-the-top video services where an individual subscriber can
basically make an arrangement directly with a service provider,
like it could be Disney, it could be Sling, Hulu, and that now
transmission is really a commodity that you can just deliver to
that subscriber, greatly reduce their cost without having to go
through someone else.
So for the first time, satellite is no longer just a cost
input to somebody else, but it has the ability to compete in
two-way transmission.
Senator Markey. So you're saying, if I may, I just want to
put it into my consumer perspective, you're saying that these
multiple satellite competitors, in an unlicensed spectrum world
down below, has more potential for identifying markets that
they could move into and provide services at an even lower cost
because that spectrum is unlicensed, and you don't--the company
terrestrially doesn't need a return on investment because it's
unlicensed at that point. It's a much lower cost----
Mr. Dankberg. Yes.
Senator Markey.--overall, and it puts a pressure on the
market that otherwise would not be there because consumers will
be opting out and heading in that direction.
Mr. Dankberg. Yes, and if I could elaborate just for a
second, we are doing services in Mexico and in Africa. In
Africa, we work with an organization called RASCOM, which is an
organization of all the African states. We need to go through
cellular operators there. A cellular operator would need to go
into a village and invest $50,000 to $100,000 to put a cell
tower in. In Mexico, we can do it directly using our own
satellites, and for $1,000, put in a WiFi hotspot.
So that--we've talked a lot about technology, which is
exciting, but the business model changes are very important,
and seeing regulations that support those would be very, very
helpful.
The Chairman. OK. Thank you, Senator Markey.
Well, great panel, great questions, great answers. It's a
fascinating field, and one that we obviously want to do
everything we can to support and encourage and see that we are
doing everything we can to make sure that people all over the
country and all over the world, in the South Dakotas of this
country and other places around the world, have access to
everything that comes with technologies, and broadband, and the
opportunities associated with it.
So we appreciate the good work that you all are already
doing, and we'll look forward to working with you and encourage
you as you encounter issues, challenges, that you think we
ought to be attending to and articulating policy about, to
share that with us. But this I think has been very, very
helpful, and we'll look forward to other opportunities to hear
from you again.
I will just say to our panelists that if you could respond
to any questions that are submitted by members of this
Committee, we'll try our best to ensure that we close the
record out in a matter of a couple of weeks. So we'll try and
get our Members to get their questions for the record to you,
and then if you could, as promptly as possible, get those
responses back, it would be most appreciated.
So with that, we will conclude. Thank you all very much.
[Whereupon, at 12 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Maggie Hassan to
Patricia Cooper
Question 1. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms
devastating Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, I'd like to talk a little
bit about emergency preparedness. If things go according to plan with
this industry, in a matter of years our planet will be covered with
low-orbiting satellites providing broadband to every corner of the
Earth. That comes with a major responsibility to bring people back on
line after storms and disasters. How is the industry thinking about
emergency preparedness, and backup power? Is having an all-of-the-above
approach to connectivity that incorporates satellite, fixed, and mobile
broadband a good idea to make sure we can rebuild after disasters?
Answer. Maintaining reliable Internet access in the aftermath of a
natural disaster can be critical when carrying out rescue operations,
assisting survivors, and beginning the recovery process. The
unprecedented destruction and humanitarian crises caused by Hurricanes
Harvey, Maria, and Irma revealed the significant role satellite
communications play in disaster relief. For those in the affected
areas, where the existing communications infrastructure was either
damaged or decimated, satellite communications provided the initial
connectivity for first responders and consumers alike.
When operational, SpaceX's planned non-geostationary orbit (NGSO)
satellite constellation will ensure that its users anywhere in the
world can maintain access to reliable, high-speed Internet connections,
VOIP, and 5G backhaul, even in the event of an emergency that disrupts
the power grid. SpaceX's constellation will connect its end-users
directly to its satellites via small, rooftop mounted terminals, which
will be available with a small solar panel. This allows for operational
connections even with local power outages. Additionally, because
SpaceX's satellite constellation will be optically linked in space,
Internet traffic from the affected area can be routed in space to
Internet gateways well away from the disaster zone, allowing for
connectivity even when local communications have been severed.
An ``all-of-the-above'' approach to connectivity is important in
order to ensure responders, aid groups, government authorities, and
affected citizens can maintain connectivity after a disaster and in the
recovery months following an event. Accordingly, in any future
infrastructure legislation, SpaceX supports a technology neutral
approach to both emergency communications services and more general
broadband infrastructure deployment. Currently, satellite-based
broadband systems are excluded from some sources of Federal
infrastructure funding for broadband deployment. The aim of emergency
communications and broadband deployment efforts should be to multiply
the means of broadband access nationwide, and to ensure rapid and
resilient broadband availability following an emergency--regardless of
the type of technology used.
Question 2. One issue this Committee has discussed at previous
hearings is the issue of space debris.
According to NASA, there are over 500,000 pieces of debris orbiting
the earth. This debris ranges in size from non-functional satellites,
to fragmented debris as small as specks of paint. This debris travels
around the earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour, roughly ten
times faster than a bullet. At these speeds, even the tiniest bits of
debris can cause damage, and windows on the Space Shuttle were replaced
because of damage from tiny debris. With the increasing launches of
micro-satellites and decreasing launch costs it is now easier than ever
to launch craft into low earth orbit, and the problem is likely to
increase many times over. Do you believe that current processes and
regulations in the United States are sufficient to mitigate the
increase in space debris? How can we work to address this issue?
Answer. In developing its broadband constellation, SpaceX has
focused from the outset on design, technology, and operations that will
preserve and protect the space environment for current and future
operations. SpaceX is committed to exceeding all U.S. and international
space safety standards in the deployment and operation of its satellite
constellation, and to advancing new best practices for safe orbital
operations and orbital debris mitigation. This includes leveraging the
high-tech manufacturing expertise and spaceflight experience SpaceX has
gained providing launch transportation services for a diverse set of
customers, including NASA and the Department of Defense.
Based on this experience, SpaceX is incorporating the following
best practices into its broadband constellation to fulfill its
commitment to safeguarding space safety:
(1) Satellite Design: SpaceX satellites are being designed and built
specifically to maximize control of a spacecraft throughout its
lifespan, even in the rigorous space environment. Each SpaceX
satellite is being designed with redundant, fault tolerant
capabilities to ensure they can survive failures and encounters
with space debris. SpaceX is leveraging its extensive
experience in resilient spacecraft design, including its
heritage with the Dragon crewed spacecraft that is undergoing
human-rating approvals to transport NASA astronauts to the
International Space Station. SpaceX is carrying over similar
critical redundancies into its satellite constellation,
shielding its satellites from micrometeorites, and engineering
components to withstand an impact in the event of a collision.
(2) On-orbit Operations: SpaceX satellites are being designed to
maneuver regularly, both in order to avoid tracked debris and
to maintain a safe separation within the constellation and with
other spacecraft, space stations, and constellations. This
ability to process data about potential orbital obstacles and
autonomously maneuver satellites to avoid a collision is a
critical safety element. SpaceX is again able to leverage its
experience with its Dragon cargo capsule, which NASA has
approved to autonomously approach the International Space
Station, disembark, and reenter Earth's atmosphere. This is
among the most challenging and demanding close-approaches in
space. SpaceX's satellites will use on-board, highly efficient
solar-electric propulsion systems that are capable of
autonomous daily maneuvers, adding up to thousands of maneuvers
over the course of their lives, in order to avoid potential
collisions. Even if the risk of impact with space debris is
deemed highly unlikely, the satellites will course correct
autonomously to avoid the remote possibility of a collision.
(3) Safe Space Operations: SpaceX is developing a detailed
operations plan that includes an orderly orbital disposal
protocol that maintains control of each spacecraft, while
rapidly deorbiting. The spacecraft are being designed out of
materials that will disintegrate in the Earth's atmosphere at
the end of their useful lives, reducing risks on the ground.
After completion of their useful life-span, SpaceX anticipates
that, typically within one-year, its satellites will reenter
the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate, far sooner than the
twenty-five year international standard.
(4) Government collaboration: SpaceX works closely to coordinate the
development of its satellite constellation with all relevant
government, industry, and international stakeholders. SpaceX
has experience working with every Federal agency involved in
space safety, notably with NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office
(ODPO) and the Department of Defense's Joint Space Operations
Center (JSpOC). For the past year, SpaceX has been testing its
risk analysis and collision avoidance software via a series of
extensive debris tracking simulations with JSpOC. This
software, in coordination with JSpOC's orbital debris data,
will allow SpaceX satellites to maneuver autonomously to avoid
collision risks--even when these risks are determined to be
highly improbable.
SpaceX is deeply invested in a space environment that is viable for
future operations, development, and exploration. We believe that a
combination of approaches including satellite design, operational
responsibility, and collaboration can help ensure a healthy, viable
space environment for generations to come.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Maggie Hassan to
Mark Dankberg
Question 1. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms
devastating Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, I'd like to talk a little
bit about emergency preparedness. If things go according to plan with
this industry, in a matter of years our planet will be covered with
low-orbiting satellites providing broadband to every corner of the
Earth. That comes with a major responsibility to bring people back on
line after storms and disasters. How is the industry thinking about
emergency preparedness, and backup power? Is having an all-of-the-above
approach to connectivity that incorporates satellite, fixed, and mobile
broadband a good idea to make sure we can rebuild after disasters?
Answer. All types of communications technologies are required to
survive and rebuild after natural disasters. Satellite networks are
composed of diverse space and ground infrastructure providing
significant advantages that allows them to remain operational during
and after natural disasters as compared to local terrestrial
communications infrastructure that may be damaged or destroyed and take
weeks or months to restore.
Federal, state and municipal public agencies, including FEMA and
NGO recovery organizations and everyday consumers use satellites to
provide robust services and business continuity when other networks are
damaged, overloaded or unavailable. Satellite communications also
provides a load sharing or surge capacity solution and enable the
creation of instant communications infrastructure.
ViaSat currently has broadband satellite coverage of the
continental United States plus Hawaii and Alaska, soon to be extended
to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. During the recent events in
Texas and Florida, the NGO recovery teams deployed ViaSat portable
satellite broadband terminals to help volunteers connect online to
provide critical medical support, place people in shelters, and
continue to heal the impacted communities.
Below is a comment from an Exede (ViaSat) customer after hurricane
Harvey:
``I just went through the Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey here
south of Seguin, TX. That storm came within 20 miles of us. How
do I know this? Because my Exede Internet stayed up the whole
time! The winds and rain were ferocious and I was quite frankly
pleasantly surprised when my Internet connection continued
without a burp. I was able to monitor the storm, keep in touch
with friends and even watch Netflix. I've always liked the
Exede service but this time it survived the `Hurricane' test.
Keep up the good work, Exede, and thank you for being there
when all else was in turmoil ):-)''
Question 2. One issue this Committee has discussed at previous
hearings is the issue of space debris.
According to NASA, there are over 500,000 pieces of debris orbiting
the earth. This debris ranges in size from non-functional satellites,
to fragmented debris as small as specks of paint. This debris travels
around the earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour, roughly ten
times faster than a bullet. At these speeds, even the tiniest bits of
debris can cause damage, and windows on the Space Shuttle were replaced
because of damage from tiny debris. With the increasing launches of
micro-satellites and decreasing launch costs it is now easier than ever
to launch craft into low earth orbit, and the problem is likely to
increase many times over. Do you believe that current processes and
regulations in the United States are sufficient to mitigate the
increase in space debris? How can we work to address this issue?
Answer. ViaSat has several U.S. geostationary spacecraft
authorizations for its current broadband space operations and has
applied for a medium-Earth orbit system. ViaSat works with its
satellite manufacturers and vendors to assess and design its spacecraft
to limit the probability of accidental explosions, ensure safe flight
operations during the service life of its satellites, and to facilitate
appropriate post-mission spacecraft disposal in order to preserve a
safe space environment. ViaSat's U.S. authorizations contain conditions
to ensure that the highest orbital debris standards and best practices
for space operations are designed into and maintained while operating
the spacecraft.
It is important that the United States remain a leader in the
development and implementation of space debris best practices and
mitigation. In fact, the development of safe flight practices and
disposal procedures in the United States, led by NASA and DoD over the
years, has encouraged other space faring nations and commercial
operators to adopt similar procedures leading to an excellent safety
track record, even though there have been a few unfortunate incidents
over the years. Continuing to encourage industry best practices in
partnership with government satellite operators, is the swiftest and
most effective way to ensure that the latest techniques are
incorporated into existing and future spacecraft and operations. It
also requires government and commercial operators to timely share
flight data and routinely cooperate on an operational level.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Maggie Hassan to
Stephen Spengler
Question 1. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms
devastating Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, I'd like to talk a little
bit about emergency preparedness. If things go according to plan with
this industry, in a matter of years our planet will be covered with
low-orbiting satellites providing broadband to every corner of the
Earth. That comes with a major responsibility to bring people back on
line after storms and disasters. How is the industry thinking about
emergency preparedness, and backup power? Is having an all-of-the-above
approach to connectivity that incorporates satellite, fixed, and mobile
broadband a good idea to make sure we can rebuild after disasters?
Answer. Hybrid networks and solutions are essential to disaster
recovery. Due to the geographical challenges that many of our customers
face around the world, fixed and mobile network operators are already
integrating satellite into their networks to provide resiliency and
redundancy should their terrestrial network be rendered inactive due
the effects of a hurricane, flood, earthquake or more extreme natural
or man made disasters. For example, given the broad scope of the
connectivity challenges following Japan's 2011 earthquake, Japan's
mobile network operators have turned to Intelsat to fully integrate our
satellite network into their own. By doing so, they will have increased
resiliency and redundancy in case of a natural disaster as well as have
a way to extend their networks and bring much needed connectivity to
communities in the more remote areas of the country.
During the devastating Hurricane Season of 2017, Intelsat provided
communications services using its Globalized Network and IntelsatOne
Flex managed service, a customizable offering that aggregates space
segment, the Intelsat Epic NG high throughput satellites and
the IntelsatOne terrestrial network into a simplified, unified
ecosystem to quickly deliver bandwidth where it was needed most.
Intelsat's support efforts began even before the first storm approached
land, initiating disaster recovery and restoration plans for customers
across the media, broadband and mobility sectors with operations
established in the projected paths of the storms. In some cases,
customers transitioned hub operations and relocated staff to Intelsat
teleport locations, maintaining unimpaired operations throughout the
storms. With broadcasters being significantly impacted by the flood in
Houston, Intelsat's Galaxy 16 satellite was used to provide vital
connectivity to re-establish services and ensure that critical news
coverage reached residents and those outside the area.
Intelsat, Liberty Global and Kymeta teamed up to provide critical
connectivity to Puerto Rico, whose infrastructure suffered catastrophic
damage due to Hurricane Maria. Three Kymeta-Intelsat enabled vehicles
crisscrossed 29 remote towns from October through December 2017. The
vehicles were equipped with Kymeta KyWayTM flat panel, beam-
forming, electronically-steered terminals that leveraged Intelsat's
satellite connectivity. Despite the lack of any electrical power or
cellular service, the low power-consuming terminals provided Internet
access using the vehicles to power the communications system.
Intelsat also worked with AT&T and Verizon to provide VSAT services
to restore communications for enterprise customers. Intelsat's Ku-band
broadband service helped banks and pharmacies open for customers again
as well as providing communications support for the Puerto Rican
government and FEMA.
These are just a few of the many examples of the importance of
hybrid connectivity when it comes to disaster relief. By incorporating
the reach, resiliency and redundancy of satellite technology into a
fixed/mobile network, operators will harden their networks, help ensure
that critical connectivity is available to assist with medical needs,
recovery efforts and play a role in maintaining or rebooting a region's
wireless infrastructure so that people's lives can return to normal.
Question 2. One issue this Committee has discussed at previous
hearings is the issue of space debris.
According to NASA, there are over 500,000 pieces of debris orbiting
the earth. This debris ranges in size from non-functional satellites,
to fragmented debris as small as specks of paint. This debris travels
around the earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour, roughly ten
times faster than a bullet. At these speeds, even the tiniest bits of
debris can cause damage, and windows on the Space Shuttle were replaced
because of damage from tiny debris. With the increasing launches of
micro-satellites and decreasing launch costs it is now easier than ever
to launch craft into low earth orbit, and the problem is likely to
increase many times over. Do you believe that current processes and
regulations in the United States are sufficient to mitigate the
increase in space debris? How can we work to address this issue?
Answer. The potential for increased space debris is a concern for
all operators. Intelsat is a founding member of the Space Data
Association, a voluntary group formed for the purpose of encouraging
and enabling the sharing of satellite flight data for both commercial
and government satellites. We have long held the belief that sharing
data and complete transparency is essential to safe space operations.
With new constellations in lower earth orbit (LEO) fast approaching, it
is more critical than ever that we increase the level of data sharing
and transparency among the international satellite operators.
While non-geostationary constellations will operate at a lower
altitude than Intelsat's geostationary satellites, our satellites will
still traverse those orbits during launch and orbit-raising to the
geostationary orbit, so there is concern about debris potential even in
those lower altitudes, particularly given the number of satellites
required to cover the earth. In addition, many nanosats/cubesats are
less agile and pose both navigational and Space Situational Awareness
challenges (SSA). This is in contrast to geostrationary satellites
which are more flexible and at the end of their maneuver life, our
geostationary satellites are boosted to a graveyard altitude in
accordance with FCC requirements--generally approximately 300 km above
GEO.
In our view, the keys to successful Space Situational Awareness
are: accuracy, actionable data, transparency, reasonable regulation and
cooperation. To achieve that, we recommend the following:
Regulation needs to be appropriate to support spaceflight
safety, but not limit innovation. We need appropriate
regulation as debris mitigation standards applied to a
geosynchronous satellite may be different than those of a large
constellation of nano-satellites in low-earth orbit with little
room to maneuver. And with the FAA taking a leadership role in
the regulatory arena, this could lead to a more rational
international framework than exists today.
Actionable Data/Transparency. The industry needs need
accurate, actionable data. As a result, there is a need for a
technical capability to catalog the date, integrate the various
formats and throw out the outliers. The growing data
collection, exploitation and dissemination requirements far
outpace the ability of cumbersome government acquisition
processes to keep up. The commercial capabilities in this area
are revolutionary, and several companies have offerings that
would solve many of today's issues and anticipate those of
tomorrow. It is our understanding that the U.S. Government
leadership is aware of these capabilities and seeks to take
advantage of them.
Realistic covariance. This is currently missing from JSpOC
and commercial capabilities could provide fill that void.
Systematic debris retrieval service. The same way people of
come together to clean up the Everest base camp, government
should come together to clean up space of all unwanted debris.
The Geosynchronous orbit is the most valuable piece of real estate
that we have in Space. It should be protected by all means. While we
need the U.S. to lead, we also need an International solution. We need
to encourage government action as a public service for all
international satellite operators and recommend an international pilot
program that addresses the points above. That way, every satellite
operator and launch service provider will design and operate their
assets in a manner consistent with preserving a safe space environment
for future generations
______
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Cory Booker to
Greg Wyler
Question. Mr. Wyler, you suggested a possible Commission to deal
with space debris issues. What do you think should be the goals of this
Commission?
Answer. Bridging the Digital Divide must include sustainable
development and the responsible stewardship of space. Today there are
almost no rules for space traffic. Companies and countries can fly
satellites in almost any location or altitude without regard to what is
already there. This has led to overlapping system designs which, if
built, have a high risk of physical collision. Companies and countries
can also design satellites focused on cost without regard to safety.
Issues like re-entry casualty risk can be all but ignored, allowing
companies to use lower cost materials which do not burn up on re-entry
and will impact the ground. As constellations grow to thousands of
satellites, the continuous re-entry and earth impact create significant
potentially uncontrollable hazards.
This is precisely why space debris and space traffic management are
in need of U.S. leadership. The U.S., as the largest market for
services, has an opportunity to create a set of rules which govern
these important space debris issues. These rules would be welcome
globally by many other concerned nations.
The FCC is trying to address space debris, but its current role is
limited. The FCC regulates the use of satellite spectrum, rather than
in-orbit collisions or re-entry casualty risk. Even if the FCC could
take a more active role, many satellite types, such as those for
imaging or sensing, will not even need FCC approval for their
activities.
This proposed Committee (whether under an existing Department,
Committee, or Commission) should include a team with deep knowledge of
these space debris and re-entry casualty issues and have the goals of:
(1) Ensuring any space objects for which U.S. authorization is
sought meet a minimum common-sense standard to prevent space
debris, including:
a. Safe altitude separation,
b. Designing for demise to minimize re-entry casualty risk.
c. Adequate positional knowledge and maneuvering capability,
d. Prompt satellite disposal upon decommissioning, and
(2) Providing leadership on the global issues of space debris and
re-entry casualty risks. The Committee should seek the advice
of and work with, the FAA, NASA, and other U.S. agencies and
organizations to promote minimum safety standards for space
traffic.
(3) Supporting other agencies faced with space debris related issues
and reviewing the impact of satellite licensing with respect to
U.S. liability for space debris under the 1967 Outer Space
Treaty.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Maggie Hassan to
Greg Wyler
Question 1. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms
devastating Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, I'd like to talk a little
bit about emergency preparedness. If things go according to plan with
this industry, in a matter of years our planet will be covered with
low-orbiting satellites providing broadband to every corner of the
Earth. That comes with a major responsibility to bring people back on
line after storms and disasters. How is the industry thinking about
emergency preparedness, and backup power? Is having an all-of-the-above
approach to connectivity that incorporates satellite, fixed, and mobile
broadband a good idea to make sure we can rebuild after disasters?
Answer. Satellites are the most reliable method of communications.
Until now, their use has been limited by their cost, the high latency
leading to a poor quality of service, and the size/difficulty of
installing the satellite receiving terminal. OneWeb has designed and
manufactured a new generation of satellites which overcome these prior
obstacles. OneWeb's new terminals will be small, lightweight, and, most
importantly, low-power. OneWeb's terminals can run on batteries for
short durations or be powered by a small solar panel for longer
durations.
OneWeb was designed to operate in the most economically challenged
emerging markets. These markets similarly have limited to no local
power available and few structures to permanently mount large heavy
satellite equipment. This ``work anywhere'' capability also makes
OneWeb's terminals ideal for providing network connectivity during
emergency situations.
OneWeb's mobile terminals will enable first responders and families
to have continuous connectivity regardless of the local cellular
coverage. The mobile terminals can be placed on a vehicle and will
include a small cell and WiFi to connect devices to the Internet. These
mobile terminals will facilitate 100 percent coverage of the United
States, augmenting Firestone's planned coverage.
With regard to bringing people back online, OneWeb will produce
easy-to-install terminals in high volume, much like any other consumer
products. OneWeb will work with government and industry bodies to
support adequate stocking and strategic placement of its terminals to
support continued connectivity during terrestrial outages caused by
emergencies or natural disaster events.
Question 2. One issue this Committee has discussed at previous
hearings is the issue of space debris. According to NASA, there are
over 500,000 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. This debris ranges in
size from non-functional satellites, to fragmented debris as small as
specks of paint. This debris travels around the Earth at speeds of up
to 17,500 miles per hour, roughly ten times faster than a bullet. At
these speeds, even the tiniest bits of debris can cause damage, and
windows on the Space Shuttle were replaced because of damage from tiny
debris. With the increasing launches of micro-satellites and decreasing
launch costs it is now easier than ever to launch craft into low Earth
orbit, and the problem is likely to increase many times over. Do you
believe that current processes and regulations in the United States are
sufficient to mitigate the increase in space debris? How can we work to
address this issue?
Answer. As mentioned above, unfortunately, the current processes
and regulations are insufficient to adequately address the risk of
space debris. The last significant U.S. regulation on space debris is
more than 20 years old. The international treaty called the Outer Space
Act was adopted fifty years ago, in 1967, long before the advent of the
commercial space industry. This has contributed to a dynamic in which
satellite technology and networks have evolved far beyond the
regulatory regime created to address space debris issues. While many
countries acknowledge this reality and are currently drafting papers
addressing this topic, the current environment presents a unique
opportunity for the U.S. to assume a leadership position and drive
standards of excellence and space stewardship worldwide.
As you have correctly pointed out, debris generation is a serious
issue and just a single impact can cause thousands of new debris
fragments which will damage entire altitudes for thousands of years.
These impact and re-entry casualty risks can be minimized if Congress
creates a regulatory regime empowered to enact simple common-sense
rules that would address critical issues, such as preventing
overlapping constellations or the launching of satellites manufactured
with lower grade materials that do not burn up during re-entry and will
impact the ground.
Today there are still many altitudes available for safe, separated
operation, and there are many ways to design satellites so they burn up
upon re-entry. However, without meaningful regulations to ensure best
practices, companies and countries can launch virtually any space
object with no minimum orbit separation from others and no minimum
design requirements.
Space is the proverbial Wild West.
To properly tame this frontier, Congress should consider the
formation of a Space Debris Committee as a central figure to spearhead
the protection of our space ecosystem and ensure it is maintained as an
accessible resource for generations to come.
[all]