Welcome to the secret society of satellite spectrum

One of the most difficult aspects of writing about the wireless industry is understanding the use of spectrum. But if I thought that was hard, I’ve been blown away by how complicated it is to understand the spectrum landscape in the satellite industry. At first, I thought it was just me. I must not be smart enough to easily grasp this stuff. After all, I have a degree in journalism, not rocket science. But recently, I wrote a story summarizing the current collaborations between satellite operators and telecom companies, and I wanted to include a little information about spectrum. I first checked ChatGPT, and it provided some information that seemed reasonable. But to confirm the information, I reached out to Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the Open Technology Institute at New America, which just published a satellite report. Sadly, much of the ChatGPT information was wrong. In terms of the complexity surrounding satellite spectrum, he said, “It’s really funny because we almost think of ourselves as some kind of secret society or something, because so few people can wrap their heads around it. There's something about it that's just really difficult to completely understand.”