FCC Adopts New Satellite Spectrum Sharing Rules

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2026 – Federal regulators approved Thursday an order that its chairman said could improve capacity for low-Earth orbit satellite broadband by seven times.

“One way to think about it is where you might have had one connection to a satellite before, you could have connections to seven or more satellites at a time,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said at the agency’s meeting Thursday.

The order will allow LEO operators to use higher power in the 10.7-12.7 GigaHertz (GHz), 17.3-18.6 GHz, and 19.7-20.2 GHz, something Elon Musk’s SpaceX has told the agency would dramatically improve the quality of its satellite broadband service.

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Those power limits, still in place in the rest of the world, were designed to protect from interference existing geostationary orbit satellite systems, which fly higher over a single point on Earth’s surface while newer LEO constellations fly lower and are more mobile.

The agency has been considering the issue since last year, and geostationary operators like DirecTV and Viasat have been strongly opposed. Those incumbents fear higher power from LEO constellations like SpaceX’s would cause interference with their systems.

The FCC was not convinced.

The existing “decades-old rules no longer reflect today’s offerings. In fact, they’re holding them back,” Carr said. “Modern satellite designs make it far easier to share spectrum than what yesterday’s regulations assume. We can do a lot better.”

Still, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez emphasized she wanted to see LEOs coordinating in good faith with the geostationary provider they share spectrum with.

“Good faith negotiation is not optional. It is a fundamental principle that drives the sharing framework we adopt today, and we take it seriously,” she said. “We want to see this updated framework result in successful coordination that supports satellite spectrum sharing and benefits consumers.”

She said her office pushed for some edits to the public draft of the item circulated last month. Jay Schwartz , head of the FCC’s space bureau, said the edits in the approved text give more detail on how LEO operators would have to conduct compatibility studies.

The item was adopted unanimously.

Dan Goldman , SpaceX’s vice president of satellite policy, was pleased.

“LFG! @FCC votes to supercharge next-generation satellites. More broadband for more people. Nice work,” he posted on X.

The FCC touted support for the item Wednesday from more than a dozen other companies and groups, like Amazon, which is launching a LEO constellation of its own, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and the Commercial Space Federation.

The U.S. has in the past pushed for the rules to be updated globally, so far without success, but FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said adopting the rules would help the country’s effort to advance the policy internationally.

Test labs

The agency also unanimously approved an order aimed at incentivizing companies to test their new wireless gear outside China. Companies have to test and certify their new devices as complying with FCC rules before they can be sold in the U.S.

The order sets up a faster approval process when devices are tested in U.S. labs or labs in countries with agreements with the U.S., essentially countries other than China.

Currently, about 75 percent of new devices are tested in China, Carr said, and the agency is looking to bring that number down. The agency first proposed revoking Chinese-owned labs from its certification program in 2024, and Carr has at least started the process of decertifying 23 since solidifying those rules last year.

The item adopted Thursday would also propose to block from the program all labs located in China unless the country signs a mutual recognition agreement with the U.S.

“If a country wants the FCC to recognize its test labs, the country should sign an MRA or similar agreement with the U.S.,” Carr said.

Andy Hendrickson , chief of the agency’s Office of Engineering and Technology, said there were very few changes from the public draft.

Covered list

Relatedly and also unanimously, the agency adopted an item proposing to prevent entities on its covered list from providing interstate telecom services.

The FCC’s covered list includes gear and services, mostly from Chinese and Russian firms, the agency has blocked after deeming them national security threats. The proposal adopted Thursday would seek comment on presumptively blocking entities on that list from providing interstate telecom services. They would be able to apply to have that designation reversed.

Carr said some covered list entities, including some which were previously blocked from providing international service, “continue to operate, or potentially operate, in the U.S. by providing services that don’t fall under the legal definition of legal telecommunications authority.”

“For years I’ve referred to this evasion as an end run around our covered list restrictions,” he said.

The proposal would also ask about a range of other actions, like preventing authorized telecom providers from interconnecting at all with covered entities, and on how the agency should go about revoking the clearance of companies already providing telecom service.