Thread by @Steved24661

$ASTS: Yesterday, SpaceX filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC. The Petition asks the FCC to amend 47 CFR 25.289 and 25.146 to ease the EPFD limits. Even if successful, I don’t foresee SpaceX securing commercial approval anytime soon.



🧵fcc.gov/ecfs/document/…

$ASTS: To start, SpaceX has requested a waiver of these limits in a separate filing. But I don’t believe that SpaceX would be filing the Petition if it believed this waiver request would be successful. SpaceX has interference issues, and it needs the rules to be changed.

$ASTS: According to the FCC’s rules, interested parties can file responses to the Petition over the next 30 days. See 47 CFR 1.405(a). Then, any interested party can file a Reply to those responses. Id. at 1.405(b). After this 45 day period, the FCC can consider the Petition.

$ASTS: The FCC can grant the Petition if it “determines that the petition discloses sufficient reasons in support of the action requested to justify the institution of a rulemaking proceeding.” See 47 CFR 1.407. AST and others will argue the Petition fails to meet this standard.

$ASTS: But let’s assume the FCC grants the Petition. At that point, the FCC will issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). See 47 CFR 1.407. This starts the long rulemaking process —including notice & comment — that we just went through with the SCS rule.

$ASTS: As a reminder, the FCC issued a NPRM for the SCS rule on March 17, 2023. The Rule was not approved until a year later. So unless the FCC grants SpaceX’s separate waiver request, we are looking at least a year until an amended rule is voted on and approved by the FCC.

$ASTS: Of course, this assumes that the FCC makes haste and rules on the Petition right away, which is not something I expect them to do given the glacial pace they typically move at. The reality is that we are looking at more than a year for any amended Rule to be approved.

$ASTS: If an amended Rule is approved, SpaceX will still need to seek commercial approval — a process that once again allows oppositions and replies to be filed. So unless the FCC grants the separate waiver request, SpaceX has a long road regulatory road ahead of it.

$ASTS: SpaceX’s actions highlight an increasingly important part of the AST thesis: Its Regulatory Moat. With AST poised to get commercial approval, the regulatory moat will increase the barriers to entry for potential competitors, cementing AST’s place as the dominant player.

*Thoughts are my own and not legal or financial advice. Do your own DD. I am a Labor & Employment attorney, not an FCC lawyer*