March 26, 2024

By Electronic Filing

Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary

Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street NE
Washington, DC 20554

Re: Notice of Ex Parte Presentation

ICFS File Nos. SAT-MOD-20230207-00022; SAT-MOD-20230804-00192;
SES-RWL-20230926-02119; RM-11976

Dear Ms. Dortch:

On March 26, 2024, EchoStar Corporation (“EchoStar”), met with the Space Bureau about
the above-referenced dockets. At the meeting, EchoStar presented the attached talking points.
Appearing on behalf of EchoStar was Alison Minea and the undersigned. The Space Bureau was
represented by Julie Kearney, Troy Tanner, Whitney Lohmeyer, Clay DeCell and Greg Boren.

Respectfully Submitted,

/s/ Jennifer A. Manner

Jennifer A. Manner
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
11717 Exploration Lane
Germantown, MD 20876
(301) 428-5893

cc: Julie Kearney

Troy Tanner
Whitney Lohmeyer
Clay DeCell
Greg Boren

(attachment)
 The FCC Must Protect the Investments and Services Currently Offered in the 2 GHz
Band by Rejecting SpaceX’s Self-Serving and Anti-Competitive Petition
ICFS File Nos. SAT-MOD-20230207-00022; SAT-MOD-20230804-00192; SES-RWL-20230926-02119, RM-11976

March 26, 2024

The FCC Must Process EchoStar’s Pending and Future Applications Without Delay and Retain the
Current 2 GHz band Licensing to Enable EchoStar to Meet the Demands of U.S. Consumers for
Innovative Services

• Since 2012, EchoStar Corporation (EchoStar) has fulfilled its obligations for its 2 GHz band mobile
satellite service (MSS) and terrestrial FCC authorizations (AWS-4) EchoStar has relied on the certainty of
these authorizations to build out the world’s first 5G Open-RAN system and to advance innovative uses
of its MSS network, including 3GPP non-terrestrial network (NTN) services.

• SpaceX, however, seeks to end both EchoStar’s ability to continue to operate its current network and
curtail future innovation by seeking to hold in abeyance all applications for the 2 GHz band but
proposing to open the band to itself for MSS, without demonstrating any technical basis.

• EchoStar is continuing to develop and build out its services using its TerreStar-1 and DBSD satellite
networks (D1 and T1, respectively) and its AWS-4 network. SpaceX’s call for holding needed
applications in abeyance is an anti-competitive attempt to slow down EchoStar’s terrestrial and non-
terrestrial services. If the FCC were to hold applications in abeyance, earth stations that support the
operations of T1 and D1 would be disrupted, threatening EchoStar’s ability to operate its satellites and
deploy new NTN services. In addition, EchoStar would not be able bring and new innovative services to
users across the country. This would not serve the public interest.

• In fact, SpaceX uses the ploy of asking to hold 2 GHz band applications in abeyance as an attempt not to
have its own baseless 2 GHz band application dismissed. Instead, FCC precedent supports dismissing
SpaceX’s applications.

The FCC Must Immediately Dismiss the Baseless SpaceX Petition for Rulemaking Without Placing it on
Public Notice (PN)

• The FCC should immediately dismiss SpaceX’s petition for rulemaking without seeking comment,
because the mere action of seeking comment would provide it with undeserved credibility and threaten
the certainty that has allowed EchoStar to innovate in this band leading to significant public interest
benefits.

• It is well established that two-widely deployed mobile services cannot share the same frequency band
generally and for the 2 GHz band specifically. This was the basis for the FCC establishing its original MSS
with an ancillary terrestrial component rule and for limiting the AWS-4 band to a single operating entity
for satellite and terrestrial services.

EchoStar Corporation
100 Inverness Terrace East • Englewood, CO 80112 • Tel: 303.706.4000
• The basis for this decision has not changed. In the recent past, other countries including Saudi Arabia,
the European Union and Australia, when examining how to license the 2 GHz band for MSS and mobile
use, have found that there needs to be a single operator in any portion of the frequency bands.

• Additionally, SpaceX’s petition, if allowed to move forward, would violate the prohibition of retroactive
rulemaking. It would not only create uncertainty in the 2 GHz band, where EchoStar has invested
billions of dollars to provide valuable, competitive mobile services to U.S. consumers, but would open
the entire industry to uncertainty about the investments they have made in licensed spectrum. Overall,
moving forward with this petition would in chill investment in innovative telecommunications services,
negatively impacting U.S. competitiveness in the global telecommunications market.