SpaceX is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider U.S. market access for Viasat’s new ViaSat-3 F2 satellite, arguing that the high-capacity geostationary spacecraft could create significant interference with Starlink operations in portions of the Ka-band spectrum.
The dispute comes just as Viasat prepares to bring ViaSat-3 F2 into commercial service over the Americas. SpaceX claims Viasat has not completed the coordination required to operate in spectrum that is also heavily used by next-generation non-geostationary satellite systems.
At the center of the dispute are the 18.8 to 19.3 GHz downlink band and the 28.6 to 29.1 GHz uplink band.
These frequencies are particularly important because they are used by NGSO broadband networks including Starlink. SpaceX has FCC authorization for Starlink operations in these portions of Ka-band, and FCC records confirm the company operates gateway infrastructure using the same frequency ranges.
SpaceX Challenges Viasat-3 F2 Approval
SpaceX filed a petition asking the FCC to reconsider its authorization allowing ViaSat-3 F2 to serve the U.S. market.
The company argues that Viasat has not secured a coordination agreement with SpaceX and should therefore not be permitted to begin commercial operations in the disputed NGSO-primary frequency bands.
The FCC’s authorization reportedly requires Viasat to either coordinate with affected NGSO operators or demonstrate that its system can operate without causing unacceptable interference.
This distinction is important. SpaceX is not seeking to prevent ViaSat-3 F2 from operating altogether. The dispute focuses on specific portions of Ka-band where GEO and NGSO networks may transmit simultaneously.
SpaceX says Viasat has had years to resolve the issue but has yet to reach an agreement.
Ka-Band Interference Risk
ViaSat-3 F2 and Starlink represent two very different satellite architectures.
Starlink consists of thousands of satellites operating in low Earth orbit, while ViaSat-3 F2 is a geostationary spacecraft positioned roughly 22,000 miles above Earth.
Despite the difference in altitude, both systems can use overlapping radio frequencies.
That creates a coordination problem rather than a simple question of who owns a particular piece of spectrum.
A geostationary satellite remains nearly stationary relative to a ground terminal. Starlink satellites continuously move across the sky, meaning the geometry between Starlink terminals, satellites and a GEO spacecraft changes constantly.
Under certain geometries, signals intended for one network can potentially raise the noise level at receivers belonging to another network.
SpaceX alleges that Viasat’s own technical analysis indicates interference could affect Starlink operations in the 18.8 to 19.3 GHz range approximately one-third of the time under the modeled conditions.
That is a substantial claim. However, it should not be interpreted as meaning one-third of Starlink customers would automatically lose service. Interference modeling depends heavily on antenna pointing, power levels, geographic location, network loading and mitigation techniques.
The FCC will ultimately have to determine whether the modeled interference exceeds acceptable regulatory limits and whether operational restrictions can resolve the problem.
GEO vs NGSO Spectrum Coordination
The dispute also illustrates a larger issue facing satellite broadband.
Traditional GEO operators once occupied an industry built around relatively small numbers of extremely powerful satellites positioned in predictable orbital slots.
LEO broadband constellations have changed that architecture completely.
Thousands of moving satellites now reuse spectrum across enormous numbers of narrow beams, gateways and customer terminals. That improves capacity but makes frequency coordination significantly more complicated.
The FCC has already imposed extensive coordination requirements on NGSO operators themselves. In previous Starlink authorizations, SpaceX has also been required to coordinate certain Ka-band operations with federal systems and other satellite operators.
This is therefore not simply a case of SpaceX claiming exclusive rights to spectrum.
Both GEO and NGSO operators operate within regulatory frameworks designed to allow spectrum sharing while preventing harmful interference.
The question is whether ViaSat-3 F2 can satisfy those requirements without materially degrading Starlink or other NGSO systems.
Amazon Raises Similar Concerns
SpaceX is not the only NGSO operator challenging Viasat’s approach.
Amazon’s Leo satellite broadband project has also raised concerns with the FCC over how ViaSat-3 F2 would operate in spectrum assigned for NGSO systems.
That matters because it turns the dispute into something broader than the long-running commercial rivalry between SpaceX and Viasat.
If multiple NGSO operators independently conclude that Viasat’s proposed operating parameters create unacceptable interference, the FCC may require additional technical demonstrations, operating restrictions or coordination agreements before allowing full commercial use of those bands.
ViaSat-3 F2 could still operate using other authorized frequencies even if access to the disputed portions of Ka-band is delayed or restricted.
ViaSat-3 F2 Targets Faster Broadband
For Viasat, the timing is significant.
ViaSat-3 F2 is intended to provide additional broadband capacity across the Americas and is expected to support internet speeds exceeding 100 Mbps in some applications.
The satellite is also strategically important because Viasat’s traditional U.S. residential satellite broadband business has been under pressure from Starlink.
Viasat reported approximately 130,000 U.S. fixed broadband subscribers as of March 31, 2026, with average monthly revenue per user of about $113.
By comparison, SpaceX reported 8.9 million Starlink subscribers globally in the first quarter of 2026, illustrating how rapidly the competitive balance in satellite broadband has shifted toward LEO constellations.
ViaSat-3 F2 therefore arrives at an important moment for the company.
Additional capacity could allow Viasat to improve broadband performance, expand aviation and mobility services and use its spectrum more efficiently across North and South America.
But that capacity becomes far less valuable if key operating frequencies remain subject to regulatory restrictions.
What the FCC Could Decide
The FCC has several possible paths.
It could reject SpaceX’s petition and allow Viasat to proceed under the existing authorization. It could require additional technical evidence demonstrating acceptable interference levels. It could also limit operations in specific frequency ranges until coordination agreements are completed.
A full rejection of ViaSat-3 F2’s U.S. market access appears less likely than targeted spectrum restrictions because the dispute concerns specific frequency bands rather than the satellite’s entire communications payload.
The more realistic risk for Viasat is therefore not that the satellite becomes unusable, but that part of its planned spectrum capacity becomes temporarily unavailable in the United States.
For a high-capacity broadband satellite, that would still be commercially significant.
Industry View
SpaceX’s filing should not be dismissed as merely another competitive attempt to slow a rival.
The technical issue is legitimate.
Ka-band spectrum is becoming increasingly crowded, and the rapid expansion of LEO constellations means GEO operators can no longer assume that legacy coordination approaches will be sufficient.
At the same time, SpaceX’s position deserves the same scrutiny as Viasat’s. Starlink has become one of the world’s largest users of satellite spectrum, and regulatory protection cannot effectively turn commonly allocated spectrum into a de facto private resource for whichever constellation scaled first.
The FCC therefore has to draw a careful line.
If Viasat cannot demonstrate that ViaSat-3 F2 can operate without harmful interference in NGSO-primary bands, restrictions are justified. But if technical mitigation can reduce interference to acceptable levels, forcing a GEO operator out of usable spectrum entirely would be difficult to justify.
The larger significance of the case extends beyond these two companies.
Satellite broadband is moving toward an environment where GEO, MEO, LEO and eventually direct-to-device networks all compete for overlapping spectrum. Frequency coordination will increasingly become as important to satellite operators as spacecraft capacity itself.
ViaSat-3 F2 may become one of the first major tests of how U.S. regulators intend to manage that new reality.
About Viasat
Viasat, Inc. is a U.S.-based satellite communications company headquartered in Carlsbad, California and traded on Nasdaq under the ticker VSAT.
The company operates satellite connectivity businesses spanning commercial aviation, maritime communications, government satellite services, residential and enterprise broadband and defense communications. Its global footprint expanded substantially following its acquisition of Inmarsat.
Viasat generated $4.64 billion in total revenue during fiscal 2026, up from approximately $4.52 billion a year earlier. Service revenue accounted for about $3.27 billion of the total.
Within its Communications Services segment, fiscal 2026 revenue included approximately $1.19 billion from aviation services, $795 million from government satellite communications, $463 million from maritime services and $608 million from fixed and other services.
As of March 31, 2026, Viasat reported approximately 13,200 vessels using its Ka-band maritime communications services and around 130,000 U.S. fixed broadband subscribers.
