French court pulls SpaceX's Starlink license
- Reference: 1649253607
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/06/starlink_france_license/
- Source link:
The decision, handed down yesterday, refers to the 10.95-12.70GHz band (space-to-Earth direction) and the 14-14.5GHz stretch (Earth-to-space direction) for user terminals and the 17.8-19.3GHz band (space-to-Earth direction) and 27.5-30.0GHz (Earth-to-space direction) for Starlink's Gateway stations.
Speaking of the Gateway stations, SpaceX [2]reportedly has only one of its ground stations left in France, in Villenave-d'Ornon, Girond, after the other two – all [3]authorized between July and December 2020 – came up against [4]local opposition . Villagers voiced concerns that the ground network gateways will affect [5]cattle .
[6]
According to the decision (translated from French), the associations PRIARTEM and Agir pour l'environnement had requested an annulment of the decision, which they were granted, the ruling said, because of a lack of public consultation.
The contested decision of ARCEP, which aims to authorize the company Starlink Internet Services Limited... is likely to have a significant impact on the market for the provision of broadband internet access and to affect the interests of end users. Therefore, by taking this decision without having first consulted the public, ARCEP disregarded the provisions of V of Article L. 32-1 of the Post and Electronic Communications Code.
[7]US, UK, and Western Europe fail to hit top 50 cheapest broadband list
[8]Elon Musk buys 9.2% of Twitter, sends share price to the Moon
[9]Hooking up to Starlink might be pricier than you thought
[10]Geomagnetic storm takes out 40 of 49 brand new Starlink satellites
ARCEP is the "independent agency in charge of regulating telecommunications, postal services and print media distribution" in France.
Starlink had offered speeds of up to 150MBps for satellite internet, with services available in France in beta since May 2021. Current speeds are comparable to 4G, although when it launched in France, SpaceX said connectivity speeds would improve over time. Users are required to order a small dish with tripod to set up in an open area at home.
[11]
[12]
Ground stations and satellites for Musk's constellation, which is meant to provide connectivity for hard-to-reach rural notspots, can be tracked [13]here .
Amazon books rocket flights for its Kuiper broadband internet satellites [14]READ MORE
For France, the SpaceX subsidiary is not the only low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite player. The coverage of each spacecraft is a narrow band around the whole world. It faces global competition from Amazon's Project Kuiper, which yesterday [15]said it had secured "up to 83 launches" from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance. The retail and cloud giant said the agreements comprised "the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history, providing heavy-lift capacity for Project Kuiper to deploy majority of its LEO constellation of 3,236 satellites."
Over in France, it faces a local rival in the form of Paris-based Eutelsat. France's biggest telecoms operator, Orange, inked a [16]deal [PDF] with Eutelsat under which it bought out all available capacity on Eutelsat's Konnect satellite to cover the entire French territory, saying it would enable even those living in the most isolated areas to benefit from very high-speed fixed broadband via satellite from January 2021.
In October 2021
[17]PDF
, Eutelsat invested an additional $165 million in OneWeb and upped its stake in the satellite broadband provider after giving it a cash injection of over half a billion dollars [18]earlier that year . The outfit was bought out of bankruptcy by the government of the United Kingdom and Indian multinational Bharti Global the year before.[19]
The London-based constellation slinger, in contrast to Starlink, is a wholesale-only proposition.
Just [20]two weeks ago , OneWeb turned to SpaceX after its rocket rides to orbit fell victim to sanctions imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. What a tangled web they weave.
We have asked SpaceX for comment. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/04/06/conseil_d_etat_decision_starlink_arcep.pdf
[2] https://www.sudouest.fr/gironde/gironde-villenave-d-ornon-hebergera-t-elle-le-seul-site-francais-starlink-du-milliardaire-elon-musk-7951708.php
[3] https://www.arcep.fr/actualites/le-fil-dinfos/detail/n/frequences-180221.html
[4] https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/gironde/bordeaux/villernave-d-ornon-une-station-satellite-de-space-x-s-installe-aux-portes-de-bordeaux-1977565.html
[5] https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210219-non-merci-french-village-rejects-elon-musk-and-his-satellite-internet-antenna
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yk25MtzPHI8A75cm1OzUJgAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/global_cheapest_broadband/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/04/elon_musk_twitter/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/23/starlink_spacex_spendy/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/09/starlink_satellites_burned_by_geomagnetic_storm/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yk25MtzPHI8A75cm1OzUJgAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yk25MtzPHI8A75cm1OzUJgAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://satellitemap.space/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/kuiper/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/kuiper/
[16] https://www.orange.com/sites/orangecom/files/2020-07/CP_Orange_Eutelsat_VENG.pdf
[17] https://www.eutelsat.com/files/PDF/investors/2021-22/PR_2130_OneWeb.pdf
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/28/bt_oneweb_deal/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yk25MtzPHI8A75cm1OzUJgAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/21/oneweb_spacex/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: French court freezes out non-French competition
Then they won't mind repaying SpaceX for the costs they've incurred in France to date either.
If there is a requirement for a public consultation, why wasnt a public consultation held? Who authorised there not being a public consultation in this case? And who signed off on the approvals knowing that the public consultation was not held?
And what sort of punishment will each receive for not doing their job properly? Oh wait, we're talking civil servants, (and french ones at that!), they never have to answer for their actions. No matter how much they refuse to follow procedures...
Maybe the consultation was held behind the door marked [1]Beware of the Leopard.
[1] https://hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2006/04/09/beware-of-the-leopard/
10GHz will affect the cattle?
That there is Rookie level crazy.
My Japanese, former NHK newsroom wife believes that Corona was spread downstream by 5G and received by people with 5G compliant smartphones and spread to their neigbours... Then vaccines facilitated the upstream return via the injected bluetooth antennae in order to transmit you bio data back to Bill Gates, helped by government mandated tracking apps...
This level of fear is tame in comparison.
My former Japanese, NHK newsroom wife...
Hey, FTFY.
Wish you well, by the way
Service 'likely to have a significant impact on market for provision of broadband internet access'
Well, yeah... that's the fucking point!
Starlink lets me tell AT&T and Spectrum to go piss up a rope for not providing me decent broadband internet access at a decent price.
I will only say, that here in the Tarn area, our ADSL from a colorful fruity company is pitiful, but the 4G from another is more than acceptable. We have two 4G routers here in this big house, separate networks, and only €40 for the two, and the whole family of 5 has acceptable speeds for their needs. My son games on XboX with my brother who is in the US midwest, and it works just fine, never a peep about performance, about being fragged, I hear a lot! LOL
So is it worth it to pollute space with more satellites?
https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/04/sentinel_1a/
Not quite...
"Users are required to order a small dish with tripod to set up in an open area at home"
1. It's not a dish. A3 size would be closer
2. A small dish is big enough for a melton mowbray pork pie with a side of branston. It's bigger than that.
Re: Not quite...
When you say "dish", I think most people would think of the thing you need to attach to your roof to watch Sky TV. I think it is a bit smaller than that, but in the same general order of magnitude.
Re: Not quite...
Hmm. "most people". For some of us from before the Sky TV, etc, era, a "satellite dish" was something about the size of a small car.
Local tin foil shortage?
"Villagers voiced concerns that the ground network gateways will affect cattle". After all they do have large heads to be covered, especially the ones with horns.
Re: Local tin foil shortage?
Now there's an idea. if we fit every cow in the world with a network transmitter. And we make inter-cow data exchange using line of sight lasers. No need to shoot stuff into space. Easy to maintain : grab the cow , replace transmitter. Use the horns as antenna masts.
The Cow Network.
Why?
How come my head keeps replacing 'Project Kuiper' with 'Project Kessler?'
I know they are in a low enough orbit to come down soon after the ion drive runs out of fuel, but I can't help it.
French court freezes out non-French competition
It's the judicial equivalent of hugely inefficient French farmers putting bales of hay on the roads. Non. That don't impress me much.