Space companies ask FCC to approve 38,000 broadband satellites

A flurry of space companies filed requests with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday for new or expanded broadband networks, asking the regulator for approval of nearly 38,000 total satellites.

Amazon, Astra, Boeing, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Hughes Network, OneWeb, SpinLaunch, and Telesat are among those asking the FCC for access to what is known as V-band spectrum, a range of frequency that the companies hope to use to provide global broadband service from space.

The FCC’s deadline for its latest processing round of proposals to use V-band was Thursday at midnight, driving the influx of applications.

“It’s just a land grab,” Quilty Analytics founder Chris Quilty told CNBC. Quilty’s boutique research and investment firm focused on the satellite communications sector.

“The most difficult aspect of building a [low Earth orbit] broadband system is acquiring the spectrum, not building and launching satellites. This is an attempt by every company with any future plans to stake a claim on beachfront that’s currently unclaimed,” Quilty added.

Notably, the companies which applied on Thursday have a variety of backgrounds and existing plans.

Amazon is working toward an initial constellation of 3,236 satellites called Project Kuiper. Astra is a rocket-builder that previously announced plans to begin building spacecraft. Boeing earlier this week received FCC authorization for a constellation of 147 satellites. British-owned OneWeb is about halfway through deploying its initial constellation of 648 satellites in orbit. Canadian operator Telesat is working on a constellation of 298 satellites called Lightspeed. SpinLaunch is focused on building an alternative launch system, while Inmarsat, Intelsat, and Hughes have existing satellite communications networks.

The number of satellites in each company’s new or expanded constellation proposed on Thursday:

• Amazon – 7,774
• Astra – 13,620
• Boeing – 5,789
• Inmarsat – 198
• Intelsat – 216
• Hughes – 1,440
• OneWeb – 6,372
• SpinLaunch – 1,190
• Telesat – 1,373

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has deployed 1,740 of its Starlink broadband satellites already, was not among the recent batch of applicants. The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch about 7,500 V-band Starlink satellites, and the company is working on plans for nearly 30,000 satellites in its “Gen2” system.

How the FCC responds to the flood of applications, and which ones receive authorization to move forward, is unclear. But the motivation is, Summit Ridge Group president Armand Musey said. His consultancy specializes in valuations for companies in the telecom and satellite industries.

“Everybody wants to put a stake out there and one way to put a stake out there is to file for a constellation and then, down the road, they’ll figure out how exactly they want to implement it or if they want to propose some changes to their initial filing. But if you don’t have a sort of a stake in the ground in…