The short version

• On 7 October 2026 the FCC’s Space Bureau released DA 26-1080, its guidance on how existing satellite licensees can move from the Part 25 milestone and surety bond rules to the new FCC Part 100 rules adopted in July.
• Part 100 drops the surety bond for every geostationary (GSO) system and for non-geostationary (NGSO) systems licensed outside a processing round. Only processing-round NGSO and multi-orbit systems keep one, starting at a flat $10 million and falling to zero once 90% of the constellation is deployed.
• NGSO systems licensed outside a processing round get a longer, ITU-style build-out schedule: one satellite operating for 90 days within seven years, then 10%, 50% and 100% of the constellation by years nine, 12 and 14.
• Nothing switches over by itself. Operators must file a letter in the FCC’s ICFS system within one year of the Part 100 Effective Date, which the Bureau has not yet announced. Anyone who misses the window keeps their old milestones and bond for the rest of the licence term.

If you hold an FCC satellite licence, two of the most expensive conditions attached to it are the deployment milestones and the surety bond. Miss a milestone and you can lose authority for the satellites you have not launched; miss it while holding a bond and the bond is payable to the US Treasury. The FCC rewrote both rules in July as part of its new Part 100. On 7 October 2026 the Space Bureau published the instructions for getting from the old rules to the new ones.

What happened on 7 October

The Space Bureau released a public notice, DA 26-1080, titled “Guidance on Transition of Part 25 Milestone and Surety Bond Rules and Requirements to Part 100”, in SB Docket 25-306. In four pages it says who can swap their current milestone and bond terms for the Part 100 versions, what a request must contain, and how the Bureau will approve requests, including some relief available before Part 100 takes effect.

The new rules are not yet in force: “Prior to the Effective Date, all current part 25 rules will control, except as specified herein or otherwise announced.” The Bureau will announce the Part 100 Effective Date separately.

Where Part 100 comes from

On 22 July 2026 the Commission adopted its Space Modernization for the 21st Century Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 26-47, released the next day. It replaces Part 25 of the FCC’s rules, which has governed satellite and earth station licensing for decades, with a new Part 100 built around what the Commission calls a “licensing assembly line”. The proposal had been published in the Federal Register as a notice of proposed rulemaking on 5 December 2025.

The order covers far more than milestones and bonds. It sets a default 20-year term for space and earth station licences, replacing the current mix of 15 years for most satellites and six years for small satellites, and it creates a variable trajectory space station (VTSS) category that I discussed in the context of in-orbit servicing and mission authorization. The Commission has already started amending Part 100 rather than Part 25, as it did in the Satellite Spectrum Abundance order adopted on 30 September.

The milestone changes

Under the current rule, 47 CFR 25.164, a GSO licensee must launch and operate its satellite within five years of the licence grant. An NGSO licensee must have 50% of its authorised satellites launched and operating within six years and the full constellation within nine.

Part 100 keeps the GSO rule. The Commission had proposed scrapping it, but commenters “strongly oppose[d]” that, arguing the milestone stops orbital slots being tied up, so the five-year benchmark survives in section 100.146(a).

For NGSO systems the rules now split in two:

NGSO systems licensed outside a processing round move to a longer schedule in section 100.146(b). The licensee must launch and operate at least one satellite for a continuous 90 days within seven years of grant. If it meets that, it must have 10% of the authorised satellites operating by year nine, 50% by year 12 and 100% by year 14. The order says the seven-year first step is “consistent with the ITU’s bringing into use (BIU) period”, and it adopts the 10%, 50% and 100% structure to match the ITU’s own deployment benchmarks, after operators including Kepler and Amazon Leo argued for alignment. I explained how those international benchmarks work in our piece on ITU spectrum and orbital slots.

NGSO systems licensed in a processing round, which is now voluntary under section 100.140, keep the existing six-year and nine-year benchmarks. VTSS authorisations are excluded from these NGSO milestones.

If no authorised satellite is functional in orbit at the seven-year mark, the authorisation terminates automatically.

The surety bond changes

The bond change is bigger in money terms. Under current 47 CFR 25.165, almost every space station licensee must post a bond within 30 days of grant. The amount rises over time: for NGSO licensees from $1 million towards $5 million over six years, and for GSO licensees from $1 million towards $3 million over five. The licensee defaults if it surrenders the licence before meeting a milestone or simply misses one.

Part 100 cuts the bond back sharply. Section 100.147 eliminates it for all GSO systems and for NGSO systems authorised outside a processing round. As the Bureau’s notice puts it, “only NGSO and multi-orbit satellite systems authorized pursuant to the processing round procedures are subject to the surety bond requirements.” Because joining a processing round is optional, the order describes the bond as effectively optional too: an applicant can weigh the protection a processing round gives against the cost of posting the bond.

For those who do post one, the formula now runs the other way. It starts at a flat $10 million whatever the size of the system and falls as satellites are deployed:

B = $10,000,000 minus $10,000,000 x (D / (0.9A))

where D is the number of NGSO satellites deployed and A is the number authorised, excluding replacements, rounded to the nearest $10,000. On a processing-round licence for 1,000 satellites, the bond would be $10 million at grant, $5 million once 450 satellites are up, and zero at 900. The licensee can reduce the bond by notifying the FCC of its updated deployment count.

The proposal had floated $20 million as the starting figure and a bond for every NGSO system of 200 or more satellites; the Commission adopted neither.

How an operator switches

To use the new milestone or bond terms on an existing licence or market access grant, an operator must meet three conditions set by the notice. It must be in compliance with all current milestone and bond terms. It must not have a pending request for a milestone waiver. And it must not have received a milestone waiver under section 25.164 at any point.

The request is a letter filed in the ICFS file for the relevant system, and it must include:

1. the licensee or operator’s name;
2. the file numbers and call signs of the licences;
3. a certified statement that it complies with its milestone and bond terms;
4. a certified statement that it has no pending or previously granted milestone waiver; and
5. either an updated milestone schedule calculated from the original authorisation date, or, for a processing-round bond, a revised bond amount under the new formula.

An operator with several systems can put them in one consolidated letter, but the letter must still be filed in each system’s ICFS file.

The window is one year from the Part 100 Effective Date. The consequence of missing it is spelled out: “the milestone and surety bond requirements as initially authorized will remain in force for the remainder of the system’s license term.”

The Bureau will review letters and list approved requests “on a rolling basis via informative public notice”. Once a request is listed, the operator is immediately relieved of its Part 25 bond obligations, and can cancel the bond or, if it is staying in a processing round, file a reduced bond within 30 days. A timely letter also pauses any obligation to top up an existing bond while the request is pending. If the Bureau denies a request, the operator has 30 days to post whatever bond is still required.

Relief before Part 100 takes effect

There is one opening now. The notice says current licensees and market access grantees “may wish to take advantage of the new surety bond rules prior to the Effective Date” and lets them file the same letter now to be relieved of the Part 25 bond. That matters most to GSO operators and NGSO operators outside a processing round, whose bond obligations disappear entirely under Part 100.

Operators authorised in a processing round have to wait. They cannot file a reduced bond under the new formula until Part 100 is effective and their transition request has been approved.

For pending applications, the Bureau will apply the Part 100 milestone and bond rules to systems authorised after the Effective Date, and applicants can include the certifications in a supplement to support a bond waiver before then.

A detail worth noticing

The July order suggested that most operators would not need to do anything. Paragraph 327 said the bond relief would apply “without the need for any action to be taken by the licensee or the Space Bureau.” The October notice narrows that: “We clarify that authorized operators who would be relieved of the surety bond obligations under section 100.147(a) must still file a letter request for each authorized system.”

So every operator that wants out of its bond must file. Given the one-year cut-off, I would treat the letter as mandatory housekeeping.

What it means in practice

For small and mid-sized NGSO operators outside a processing round, this is the most useful part of Part 100: no bond growing towards $5 million, and 14 years rather than nine to complete the constellation. GSO operators keep their five-year deadline but lose a bond of up to $3 million. Large processing-round constellations keep their six and nine-year deadlines and a bond, but one that falls as they deploy.

The wider point is that milestones and bonds have always been tools against spectrum warehousing. Part 100 leans more on ITU deployment rules and automatic termination, and less on cash at risk. Whether that disciplines paper filings will only be clear in a few years. The same licensing overhaul also shapes newer services such as direct-to-device satellite service.

What I would watch

The first is the Effective Date notice. Every deadline in DA 26-1080 runs from it, and until it is published Part 25 still applies. When I checked the Federal Register on 23 October 2026, I could find the December 2025 proposal but not the July order itself, so the timing is still open.

The second is the first list of approved transition requests. It will show how strictly the Bureau reads the bar on anyone who has ever received a milestone waiver.

The third is processing rounds. Paragraph 328 of the order says the Bureau will issue separate instructions for the transition to the new processing round rules. Operators with licences conditioned on a future processing round should watch that closely, because it decides which milestone and bond regime they end up in.

The fourth is how the rest of Part 100 lands, including the orbital debris and reporting rules, which interact with commitments such as the five-year deorbit rule.

This article reflects FCC 26-47 and public notice DA 26-1080 as published on the FCC’s website as at 23 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice on any particular licence.

The short version

• On 6 October 2026 two FCC bureaus authorised SpaceX to deploy a new constellation of 15,000 satellites, orbiting at 326 to 335 km, for direct-to-device service in the United States and abroad. Half must be in orbit by 7 October 2032 and the rest by 7 October 2035.
• On 8 October the FCC released a draft rulemaking for its 29 October meeting that would extend Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) from 5 to 13 terrestrial mobile bands, adding 482 megahertz.
• The draft would scrap the rule that a satellite operator must lease spectrum covering a whole region such as the contiguous United States. Instead, it would certify a coexistence agreement with the terrestrial licensee, choose its own licence area and respect a signal limit at the boundary.
• It also proposes the first direct-to-device performance requirements, measured at two, four and nine years, for SCS and mobile-satellite operators alike, and asks whether to write exclusive rights in the MSS bands into the rules.

Direct-to-device (D2D) is the industry term for satellites that talk straight to ordinary phones and other consumer devices, with no dish and no special handset. In October 2026 US regulation of it moved twice in three days. The FCC’s Space Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau licensed the largest D2D constellation yet proposed, and the Commission published a draft that would rebuild the 2024 rules on which most D2D services in the United States now run.

The draft is not yet law. It is on the tentative agenda for the FCC’s 29 October 2026 open meeting and may change before the vote. The SpaceX authorisation, by contrast, is a final bureau-level grant, and it shows what the new rules would look like in practice, because most of what the draft proposes has already been granted to SpaceX and others by waiver.

Three routes to the phone

The FCC recognises three legal routes for D2D. The first is Supplemental Coverage from Space, where a satellite operator uses a mobile network’s terrestrial spectrum. The second is the Mobile-Satellite Service (MSS), using bands allocated internationally to satellites. The third, use of unlicensed spectrum, was proposed in a separate notice published on 8 September 2026, with comments due on 9 November 2026.

The SCS framework dates from the Report and Order adopted on 14 March 2024 (FCC 24-28), published in the Federal Register on 30 April 2024. It created a secondary MSS allocation in five bands: 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz Cellular, Broadband PCS and the AWS-H Block. To use it, a satellite operator had to lease spectrum from terrestrial licensees that together held every co-channel licence across a “geographically independent area” (GIA), such as the contiguous United States.

The draft is candid about how that has worked. The bureaus have granted four SCS authorisations, and every one relies on waivers: of the GIA rule, of the out-of-band emission limit, of device certification rules and, for SpaceX, of the lease requirement itself.

SpaceX’s D2D licence of 6 October

The Authorization and Order (DA 26-1078), adopted and released on 6 October 2026, grants in part and defers in part SpaceX’s application for what it calls the SpaceX D2D Constellation: 15,000 non-geostationary satellites in nine shells between 326 km and 335 km, at inclinations from 26 to 96.87 degrees. The satellites will provide SCS and MSS in the United States, MSS and direct-to-cell service abroad, and Ka-, V-, E- and W-band links for backhaul and telemetry, tracking and command.

The spectrum largely comes from EchoStar. On 12 May 2026 the bureaus approved the assignment (DA 26-471) of roughly 65 megahertz of mid-band spectrum, the AWS-4, AWS-H Block and unpaired AWS-3 licences, to SpaceX through a two-step transaction. Inside the United States the grant covers SCS in 1695-1710 MHz (uplink), the PCS G Block and the AWS-H Block, and MSS downlinks in the 2 GHz MSS bands. SpaceX’s request to use 2020-2025 MHz was deferred.

Several waivers carry the weight. Because SpaceX holds the terrestrial licences itself, the bureaus waived the rule requiring an SCS lease for the AWS-3 and AWS-H bands, but made that waiver non-transferable. They waived the GIA requirement and the rule that AWS-3 mobiles transmit only under control of a base station, subject to coordination with federal users in protection zones. They also allowed aggregate out-of-band emissions of -110.6 dBW/m2/MHz next to SpaceX’s downlinks, against the -120 dBW/m2/MHz in the rules.

The conditions are just as useful to read. SpaceX may not start commercial operations in the EchoStar bands until the second step of that transaction closes. It must post a surety bond by 4 November 2026, launch half the constellation by 7 October 2032 and the rest by 7 October 2035, and file semi-annual reports on conjunction events, satellites taken out of service and re-entries. The licence term is 15 years from the first satellite reaching orbit. Globalstar, Viasat and Iridium filed petitions to deny. On optical astronomy, the bureaus said the FCC’s rules do not address it, so it falls outside their review, a stance that astronomy groups have struggled to dislodge, as the DarkSky litigation showed. SpaceX must still keep its own commitments on satellite brightness.

What the 29 October draft would change

The draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (GN Docket Nos. 26-281 and 23-65), dated 8 October, makes six main proposals.

First, more spectrum. SCS would be allowed in 13 bands, the existing five plus eight new ones: 800 MHz ESMR, 900 MHz, 1.4 GHz, 1670-1675 MHz, AWS-1, AWS-3, 2.5 GHz (2500-2690 MHz) and 3.45 GHz (3450-3550 MHz). That adds 482 megahertz to the 344 megahertz already in the framework. The allocation would stay secondary, and the AWS-4/2 GHz MSS band would be left alone because it can already support D2D.

Second, no GIA. An applicant would draw its own licence area, which need not be contiguous or follow terrestrial licence boundaries, and would receive a single SCS licence per band covering that area. It could later expand the area if it signs further agreements.

Third, no lease. To qualify, the satellite operator would certify either that it has a coexistence agreement with the terrestrial licensees covering the whole area, or that it holds the terrestrial licences itself. The terms would not have to be filed. If an agreement ends, the operator would have to stop serving that part of its area and modify its licence.

Fourth, a boundary limit. Without the GIA buffer, neighbouring operators could share a channel across a line on the map. The draft proposes an aggregate power flux-density limit of -76 dBm/m2/MHz at every SCS licence boundary, including international borders, with an option to agree different limits privately.

Fifth, end-user devices operating under the new SCS rules would be licensed by rule as earth stations, and the draft proposes allowing drones and other uncrewed aircraft to use SCS in bands without airborne restrictions.

Sixth, transition. The four existing SCS licensees would have to comply with the new rules once they take effect, and the Commission asks whether a transition period is needed.

The draft also asks about the interim 911 rules for SCS, temporary authority to serve outside a licence area in disasters (it cites the emergency SCS authority granted during the January 2025 Southern California wildfires), and possible effects on radio astronomy. One limit is fixed by treaty: where SCS is inconsistent with the ITU’s international allocations, it must operate on a non-interference, unprotected basis under Article 4.4 of the Radio Regulations.

Performance requirements and MSS exclusivity

The most consequential part may be the least noticed. The draft proposes D2D performance requirements, in addition to satellite milestones, for both SCS licensees and “MSS D2D operators”. Its illustrative metrics are a downlink signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio of 5 dB at two and four years and 10 dB at nine years; minimum uplink throughput of 100, 200 and 300 kbps per megahertz; and outdoor service available 70%, 80% and 90% of the time across 90% of each licence area. Missing the first interim target would pull the final deadline forward by one year. The FCC says these mirror the conditions in the SpaceX-EchoStar and Grain-T-Mobile transactions, and it asks what should apply to geostationary D2D systems.

On MSS, the draft notes that the Big LEO, L-band and 2 GHz service rules were written decades ago. Globalstar and Iridium are the only licensed Big LEO systems; Globalstar and Amazon have applied to transfer Globalstar’s licences to Amazon, which has since sought its own D2D authority. On 23 April 2026 the Space Bureau’s MSS Clarification Order (DA 26-398) reaffirmed that MSS licensees hold exclusive rights in the bands they are authorised to use and dismissed, with prejudice, requests by SpaceX, Kepler, Sateliot and AST for access to bands already licensed to others. The draft asks whether to codify that exclusivity.

The companion auction item

The same meeting will consider a Further Notice on the 1675-1695 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands. It proposes auctioning 25 megahertz in two unpaired 10 megahertz blocks and one unpaired 5 megahertz block, for terrestrial use, D2D or both, with a secondary MSS allocation for SCS. The fact sheet notes that NTIA is still studying 1680-1695 MHz, so the final band plan depends on that study.

What it means in practice

For satellite operators, the business model changes from leasing a national block to signing agreements market by market. That favours operators who can target regions, and terrestrial licensees with patchy holdings, such as a regional carrier or a 900 MHz licensee, gain something to sell. The FCC notes an experimental D2D trial in the 900 MHz band between Anterix and Lynk.

For mobile network operators, the coexistence agreement becomes the key contract. Because its terms would stay private, interference allocation, termination rights and what happens to the satellite partner’s performance deadlines if the agreement ends will all be matters of negotiation.

For everyone, the regulatory layer is getting heavier even as the licensing layer gets lighter. Performance metrics, discontinuance and renewal rules would make D2D look more like a terrestrial licence than a satellite authorisation. The new licences will also sit within the FCC’s new part 100 satellite rules, adopted in the Space Modernization Report and Order (FCC 26-47) on 22 July 2026 but not yet in force, and alongside the spectrum changes covered in our piece on the 12.7 GHz and 42 GHz decision.

Internationally, SCS remains a national arrangement. Satellites that spill signals across borders need the neighbour’s consent, and filings still run through the ITU system. The global question is on the agenda of the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027 (Shanghai, 18 October to 12 November 2027), where agenda item 1.13 under Resolution 253 (WRC-23) studies possible new MSS allocations for direct connectivity between satellites and mobile handsets between 694/698 MHz and 2.7 GHz.

What I would watch

The first is the 29 October vote. Changes between the draft and the adopted text, especially to the -76 dBm/m2/MHz boundary limit and the treatment of public safety bands, will show where the mobile carriers pushed back. Comments would then be due 60 days after Federal Register publication, and replies 90 days after.

The second is the performance metrics. They are the first serious attempt anywhere to define what counts as working D2D service, and satellite operators will argue that SINR and availability targets designed with SpaceX’s spectrum position in mind do not fit smaller or geostationary systems.

The third is SpaceX’s own timetable: the surety bond due by 4 November 2026, closing of the second step of the EchoStar deal, and whether the first satellites of the new constellation launch before the new SCS rules take effect.

The fourth is MSS exclusivity. If the FCC codifies exclusive rights in the Big LEO and L-band allocations, the Amazon-Globalstar transaction becomes a purchase of a protected D2D franchise, and new entrants will have to buy their way in rather than seek a share of the band. Taken together with the Upper C-band transition, my read is that it confirms the pattern of this FCC: spectrum is pushed towards its most intensive use, and every licensee, satellite or terrestrial, is expected to show that it is using what it holds.

The short version

• On 30 September 2026 the FCC adopted its Satellite Spectrum Abundance order (FCC 26-65), opening more than 1,000 megahertz in the 12.7 GHz and 42 GHz bands to more intensive satellite use. It was released on 1 October and, as of 18 October, had not yet been published in the Federal Register.
• In the 12.7 GHz band the FCC adds a new primary downlink allocation for non-geostationary systems, allows aircraft and ship terminals to uplink to geostationary satellites, and gives incumbent terrestrial licensees 10 years of protection before their status drops to secondary.
• Much of the 12.7 GHz band is allocated only for uplinks internationally. The FCC says it is making “an independent decision” for the United States, which means US downlinks there will depend on not interfering with other countries’ services.
• The same item launches two further proposals: one on more satellite spectrum in parts of the Ku and Ka bands and 138.25 gigahertz in the D-band, and one on spectrum for servicing, manufacturing and lunar missions, which the FCC calls “weird space stuff”.

Most spectrum fights in Washington end with satellites losing ground to mobile networks. This one went the other way. At its open meeting on 30 September, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a single omnibus item that takes two bands once earmarked for terrestrial wireless and hands them to satellite operators, while opening two new rulemakings that could move several thousand more megahertz in the same direction.

The Report and Order and Further Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 26-65) was released on 1 October. It is long, technical and easy to file under “telecoms”, but it matters to space lawyers for three reasons. It changes who can transmit what, and in which direction, in bands that large constellations want now. It departs knowingly from the international allocation table. And it gives the first real sign of how the FCC intends to license the in-orbit servicing and lunar missions that do not fit its existing categories.

What the FCC decided

The order covers two bands: 12.7 to 13.25 GHz (the “12.7 GHz band”) and 42 to 42.5 GHz (the “42 GHz band”). Both had been the subject of 2023 proposals to expand terrestrial mobile use. In May 2025 the Commission asked instead whether satellites might use them more quickly and intensively, in a notice published at 90 FR 27499. The answer in the record was clear. The order notes that no commenter opposed adding satellite allocations in either band. It also says the Commission has since made spectrum more suited to mobile networks available elsewhere, including the Upper C-band, and that the current record shows little interest in more intensive terrestrial use of these two bands.

So the Commission terminated the separate terrestrial proceedings for both bands and opened them to satellites. It estimates that the change will increase high throughput satellite capacity by about 25 per cent in the 12.7 GHz band and 7.2 per cent in the 42 GHz band, and puts quantifiable net benefits over five years at between $151 million and $1.2 billion using a 3 per cent discount rate.

Chairman Brendan Carr’s statement frames the item as part of a wider “spectrum abundance” agenda, and he is candid about the target: “in-home satellite broadband”. Commissioner Olivia Trusty’s statement stresses national security and positioning “heading into the World Radiocommunications Conference next year”.

The 12.7 GHz band: two directions at once

The 12.7 GHz band has always been an uplink band for satellites. The FCC now adopts what it calls “an aggressive, bi-directional frequency-use plan”, and the detail is where the legal interest lies.

On the uplink side, individually licensed gateway and feeder link earth stations can transmit to both geostationary (GSO) and non-geostationary (NGSO) satellites. Earth stations in motion aboard aircraft and ships can uplink to GSO satellites, but only aircraft at altitude. The old restriction that limited GSO uplinks in part of the band to international systems goes.

On the downlink side, the FCC adds a new primary allocation for NGSO satellites transmitting to blanket licensed user terminals, including terminals on land, at sea and in the air. That adds 525 megahertz of contiguous downlink spectrum next to the 10.7 to 12.7 GHz range that NGSO broadband systems already use, which the order describes as a “more than 25% increase”.

To make both directions work in the same spectrum, the FCC sets an order of priority. NGSO downlink terminals must accept interference from gateway and feeder link uplinks. The FCC declined to go further in either direction. SES and other GSO operators had argued that the band should stay uplink only and that any ubiquitous use should be for uplinks; SpaceX and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation had asked for GSO uplinks to be made secondary to NGSO downlinks. The order rejects both and says “we need not choose between extremes.”

There is also a buffer. The 12.7 to 12.75 GHz slice sits next to the 12.2 to 12.7 GHz band used for satellite television. The FCC lifts its 2022 application freeze in 12.75 to 13.25 GHz, effective on Federal Register publication, but replaces the freeze in 12.7 to 12.75 GHz with a permanent bar on new satellite uplink applications, to protect satellite television receivers and NGSO downlinks next door.

Incumbents get ten years

The 12.7 GHz band is not empty. Fixed microwave links, broadcast auxiliary services and cable relay stations use it. The FCC keeps them, but changes the fixed and mobile allocations from primary to secondary, makes the long-running freeze on new terrestrial licences permanent, and grandfathers existing stations with protected status for 10 years from Federal Register publication. After that date they can keep operating, but “on an unprotected, non-harmful interference basis” towards satellite services.

Strictly, this part is an Order of Proposed Modification under section 316 of the Communications Act: affected licensees will have 30 days from Federal Register publication to protest, and a contested modification will not become final for that licensee unless the Commission orders otherwise. The Commission had asked about sunsets of three, five or ten years. It chose the longest, saying the record did not support a particular period and that 10 years “errs on the side of caution”. For incumbents that is a predictable horizon. For satellite operators it means that, in the places where terrestrial links are still running, the band will not be fully clear until the mid 2030s.

The 42 GHz band: gateways and light licensing

The 42 GHz band gets a new primary allocation for satellite downlinks to individually licensed and Nationwide Non-site earth stations. Terrestrial fixed service keeps its primary status; mobile service becomes secondary for non-federal use. Unlike the 12.7 GHz band, consumer terminals are not allowed: a new footnote, NG150, limits use to gateway and feeder link earth stations.

The Commission says it wants to authorise these gateways through “light licensing”, the database driven model already used for terrestrial links in the 70/80/90 GHz bands, where a licensee holds a non-exclusive nationwide licence and registers individual sites. It does not build that system here. It defers the mechanics to other proceedings and will process applications under existing rules in the meantime.

Radio astronomy was the main technical concern. The 42 GHz band sits next to 42.5 to 43.5 GHz, which is used for radio astronomy. The FCC requires applicants to certify that their power flux density and equivalent power flux density will not exceed the limits that already apply internationally at protected radio astronomy sites, and rejects calls for tighter aggregate limits. Astronomers who followed the Dark-Sky Association v FCC litigation will note that this is a protection built into the rules rather than left to case by case review.

A deliberate step away from the ITU table

This is the part of the order I would read twice. The order itself notes that, while 12.7 to 12.75 GHz is allocated for satellite downlinks in ITU Regions 1 and 3, “the majority of the 12.7 GHz band is limited to uplinks” in the international fixed-satellite allocations. The Americas are in Region 2. The FCC acknowledges the mismatch and says that “rather than viewing the current international allocations as an impediment”, it forms “an independent decision with the best interests of the American public in mind.”

National administrations are allowed to do this, but at a price. Under the Radio Regulations, a frequency assignment that departs from the international table can only be used on the condition that it does not cause harmful interference to, and does not claim protection from, stations operating in accordance with the table. A US NGSO downlink in the 12.7 GHz band will therefore have weak standing internationally until the table catches up, which is presumably why the order notes commenters’ hope that US action “may encourage the availability of the band internationally”. For the filing mechanics behind this, see our explainer on how ITU filings decide who gets spectrum and orbital slots.

The practical consequence for operators is that the US decision gives domestic licensing certainty, not global certainty. A constellation planning to use 12.7 GHz downlinks outside the United States still needs the international allocation, and the next chance to seek one is the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027.

The two new proposals

The item does not stop at the order. The first further notice seeks comment on more satellite spectrum: segments of the Ku and Ka bands (13.75 to 14.0 GHz, 14.5 to 15.35 GHz, 15.43 to 15.63 GHz, 18.6 to 18.8 GHz, 19.4 to 19.6 GHz and 29.1 to 29.25 GHz), 138.25 gigahertz in the D-band above 100 GHz, inter-satellite service rules, including a proposal to implement the outcome of the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, and the technical criteria needed to extend light licensing to other bands.

The second, which the FCC calls the WSS further notice, builds on its March 2026 “Spectrum Abundance for Weird Space Stuff” proposal (FCC 26-13). That earlier notice looked at spectrum for what the Commission calls “emergent space operations”: spacecraft and commercial operations that use radio to control a spacecraft or communicate with it, but that do not provide satellite communications to the public. Think in-orbit servicing, refuelling, manufacturing and lunar missions. The new notice adds four candidate areas for telemetry, tracking and command and mission data: 2360 to 2395 MHz, 13.25 to 13.4 GHz, 100 to 300 GHz, and bands used for inter-satellite links. It also asks whether such operations should be limited to directional antennas.

This matters beyond spectrum. Servicing and proximity missions have struggled to fit existing US licensing categories, a problem we discussed in our piece on the Swift rescue attempt and mission authorisation. Spectrum is one of the few areas where the FCC can create a clear path without new legislation, and these proposals suggest it intends to.

How it fits the FCC’s wider rewrite

The order amends the FCC’s new Part 100 rules rather than Part 25. That is because on 23 July 2026 the Commission released its Space Modernization for the 21st Century order (FCC 26-47), which replaces Part 25 with a new Part 100 built around what it calls a “licensing assembly line”. The order notes that those rules are not yet effective. Lawyers preparing applications for the 12.7 or 42 GHz bands will need to track both sets of rules through the transition.

The spectrum order also sits alongside the FCC’s security agenda. The Secure Space Act passed by the Senate in September, which we covered in our piece on the two satellite security bills, would bar licences for entities linked to the Covered List. More spectrum makes FCC authorisation more valuable, and therefore makes the conditions attached to it more significant.

Who gains and who should be careful

The clearest winners are NGSO broadband operators. The order cites SpaceX and Amazon’s Kuiper among the commenters and identifies NGSO downlinks to consumer terminals as the main use. Aviation and maritime connectivity providers using GSO satellites also gain uplink access through earth stations in motion.

GSO operators did not get the uplink only band they asked for, but they kept co-primary uplinks, protection for satellite television in the adjacent band, and access for aeronautical and maritime terminals. Terrestrial incumbents have a decade of protection but no growth path in the 12.7 GHz band. Radio astronomers have certified limits at notified sites.

For lawyers, the points to watch in licence applications are the interference hierarchy (NGSO downlinks accept interference from gateway uplinks), geographic proximity conditions near GSO uplink sites, and coordination with incumbent terrestrial stations during the 10-year sunset. Any operator relying on downlinks near the band edge should also look closely at the permanent freeze in 12.7 to 12.75 GHz.

What I would watch

The first is Federal Register publication. The freeze lift in 12.75 to 13.25 GHz takes effect on publication, the 10-year sunset runs from that date, most rule changes take effect 60 days later, and the comment deadlines on both further notices run 30 and 60 days from it. As of 18 October 2026 the item had not appeared in the Federal Register.

The second is petitions for reconsideration and section 316 protests. GSO operators lost the argument over priority in the 12.7 GHz band, terrestrial incumbents have a 30-day window to protest the modification of their licences, and the order’s interference rules for earth stations in motion are detailed enough to invite requests for clarification.

The third is the international track. The US position going into the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference will show whether the FCC’s “independent decision” on 12.7 GHz downlinks becomes a push for a change to the international table.

The fourth is the WSS rulemaking. If the FCC adopts dedicated spectrum for servicing and lunar missions, it will have done more to give those missions a recognised regulatory home than any other US agency so far.

The short version

• Orbital slots and spectrum are not owned. They are recorded, and the record is held by the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.
• A filing has to be brought into use within seven years, and for both GSO and NGSO that means a satellite maintained on the notified assignment for 90 continuous days.
• Since WRC-19, NGSO constellations also face milestones of 10, 50 and 100 percent deployment at two, five and seven years after that.
• Missing a milestone does not cancel the filing. It shrinks it, which is the ITU’s answer to paper constellations.

Every satellite communications business rests on two assets it does not own. A position in the sky and a slice of spectrum. Neither is property. Both are entries in an international register maintained by the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau in Geneva, and the entries are made by national administrations, not by companies.

That structure explains a lot of behaviour that otherwise looks strange, including why an operator with no obvious connection to a small state files through it.

The filing chain

The process runs through the Radio Regulations, principally Article 9 for coordination and Article 11 for notification.

Advance Publication Information

Historically the first step, in which an administration told the Bureau what it intended to operate and the Bureau published it. Since WRC-19 the API stage was largely folded into the coordination request for most fixed satellite, broadcasting satellite and mobile satellite filings, so in practice most commercial systems now start at coordination.

Coordination request

Filed under RR No. 9.30. The Bureau publishes the request, identifies which administrations may be affected, and the notifying administration then has to coordinate bilaterally with each of them. This is where most of the time and most of the negotiation goes. There is no arbitrator. If two administrations cannot agree, the filing sits.

Notification and recording

The assignment is notified to the Bureau, examined for conformity with the Table of Frequency Allocations and the applicable coordination, and if the finding is favourable, recorded in the Master International Frequency Register. Recording is what confers the right to international recognition and protection from harmful interference.

Bringing into use

The assignment must be brought into use within seven years of receipt of the complete coordination request. Miss it and the filing is cancelled.

For a geostationary network, bringing into use means a space station with the capability to transmit or receive on the notified frequency, maintained at the notified orbital position, for a continuous 90 day period. For a non-geostationary system, it means deploying a satellite in one of the notified orbital planes and maintaining it for 90 continuous days.

The problem with 90 days and one satellite

Read the NGSO rule again. One satellite, 90 days, and a filing for a constellation of ten thousand is brought into use.

That was the position before 2019, and it produced exactly the behaviour you would expect. Filings for enormous constellations were made and held with minimal deployment, blocking coordination for anyone who came later. The industry term is paper satellites.

WRC-19 fixed it with Resolution 35, which added a milestone based deployment schedule measured from the end of the seven year bringing into use period.

Administrations must report deployment to the Bureau no later than 90 days after each milestone period expires.

The sanction is elegant. It is not cancellation. It is automatic reduction of the recorded satellite count. Fall short of the 10 percent milestone and the filing is capped at ten times the number actually deployed. Fall short of the 50 percent milestone and it is capped at twice the number deployed. Fall short at 100 percent and it is capped at exactly what is flying.

An operator that files for 10,000 and deploys 400 by milestone one keeps a filing for 4,000, not 10,000. The paper constellation shrinks to the size of the real one.

Why the flag state question arises

Filings are made by administrations. A company does not file. It asks a national administration to file on its behalf, and that administration then bears the coordination workload and any international consequences.

Administrations differ in how quickly they file, what they charge, how they prioritise between competing domestic applicants, and how vigorously they coordinate. Those differences are real and they are a legitimate factor in structuring, in the same way that vessel registration is in shipping.

They also feed the criticism that the system rewards administrative arbitrage rather than technical merit. That criticism has not produced a change in the rules, because the rules are made by the same administrations.

WRC-23 and what is coming at WRC-27

WRC-23 ran in Dubai from 20 November to 15 December 2023, with roughly 3,900 delegates from 163 Member States. Three outcomes matter for NGSO operators.

New orbital tolerances were introduced. For systems with eccentricity below 0.5 and apogee under 15,000 km, apogee, perigee and inclination tolerances are 70 km during deployment, tightening to 30 km afterwards.

A regulatory framework for Ka-band satellite to satellite links was approved, which lets LEO constellations relay through GSO and MEO systems.

On sustainability, the Radiocommunication Assembly adopted Resolution ITU-R 74 on sustainable use of spectrum and orbital resources, and the ITU began requesting post-mission disposal information from NGSO operators.

The flashpoint was equivalent power flux density. NGSO operators wanted a WRC-27 agenda item to revisit the EPFD limits that protect GSO networks, which date from a period when the NGSO population was tiny. GSO operators and several administrations opposed. EPFD revision was kept off the WRC-27 agenda, with technical studies continuing for a report without regulatory action.

For WRC-27, the items to watch are:

• AI 1.5, measures to limit unauthorised operation of NGSO earth stations and to allow a country to be excluded from an NGSO system’s service area. Both are technically contested.
• AI 1.16, NGSO interference into radio astronomy, including possible recognition of radio quiet zones for ALMA in Chile and the SKA in South Africa. This is now the main dark and quiet skies battleground inside the ITU.
• AI 1.12 to 1.14, new mobile satellite allocations including direct to device.

The gap the ITU does not fill

It is worth being clear about what this system does and does not do. The ITU allocates and records spectrum and orbital positions. It does not license satellites, it does not regulate debris, it does not adjudicate collisions and it has no enforcement arm.

An operator with a perfect ITU filing and no national authorisation cannot launch. An operator with both can still create a hazard nobody has authority to stop. That gap is the subject of our piece on space traffic management.