Part 25 of the Federal Communications Commission's Rules Governing the Licensing of, and Spectrum Usage By, Commercial Earth Stations and Space Stations

On April 21, 2023, the Commission released a Report and Order, FCC 23-29, IB Docket No. 21-456, titled “Revising Spectrum Sharing Rules for Non-Geostationary Orbit, Fixed-Satellite Service Systems.” In this Report and Order, the Commission revised its rules governing spectrum sharing among a new generation of broadband satellite constellations to promote market entry, regulatory certainty, and spectrum efficiency through good-faith coordination. As relevant to this information collection, the Commission adopted rules clarifying protection obligations between non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service (NGSO FSS) systems authorized through different processing rounds by using a degraded throughput methodology. Specifically, the Commission required that, prior to commencing operations, an NGSO FSS licensee or market access recipient must either certify that it has completed a coordination agreement with any operational NGSO FSS system licensed or granted U.S. market access in an earlier processing round, or submit for Commission approval a compatibility showing which demonstrates by use of a degraded throughput methodology that it will not cause harmful interference to any such system with which coordination has not been completed. If an earlier-round system becomes operational after a later-round system has commenced operations, the later-round licensee or market access recipient must submit a certification of coordination or a compatibility showing with respect to the earlier-round system no later than 60 days after the earlier-round system commences operations. The relevant rule revision for purposes of this information collection is the addition of paragraph (d) in 47 C.F.R. § 25.261.

The latest form for Part 25 of the Federal Communications Commission's Rules Governing the Licensing of, and Spectrum Usage By, Commercial Earth Stations and Space Stations expires 2028-07-31 and can be found here.