Power limits are now a key hurdle for LEO growth

Power limits—not just lack of spectrum—are a key bottleneck for low-earth orbit satellite deployment, panelists argued at a New America policy event. As the Federal Communications Commission considers how to update its satellite spectrum sharing rules, it’s also thinking about revamping its Equivalent Power Flux Density limits so that LEO providers can boost their satellite power levels—and in turn up their capacity. Joe Kane, director of broadband and spectrum policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said revising the existing rules makes sense because they “don’t really envision a world in which we have [thousands of schedules] in multiple different constellations going around the earth all the time.” The FCC’s EPFD limits are based on standards established by the International Telecommunication Union in the 1990s. The idea was to prevent interference between geostationary and non-geostationary satellites. Obviously, there are a lot more LEO satellites now than there were thirty years ago.