Globalstar Opposed to Other Satellite Operators in 1.6 GHz
Iridium petitioned the FCC for access last week, and SpaceX has sought to enter the band.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2025 – Satellite company Iridium is asking federal regulators to allow it to share some spectrum used by fellow satellite operator Globalstar. Globalstar is not interested in that.
Representatives from Globalstar met with Arpan Sura, senior counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, on Monday at the company’s Louisiana headquarters. During the meeting, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday, the company said the FCC should deny Iridium’s petition to share some of the 1.6 GigaHertz (GHz) band.
“The existing Big LEO [mobile-satellite service] licensing framework has been an extraordinary success, and there is no justification for modifying this framework,” the company wrote. “The co-frequency operation of another entity’s system in Globalstar’s licensed MSS spectrum, meanwhile, would inevitably cause extensive harmful interference to Globalstar’s services.”
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