SpaceX wants EchoStar's appeal of its direct-to-cell waiver thrown out

FCC ECFS · GN Docket 23-135 · Opposition · 2025-04-23

EchoStar asked the FCC to reverse a waiver the agency's bureaus had granted for SpaceX's satellite-to-phone service. SpaceX notes that EchoStar was the only party to seek review, and that it did so without offering any technical analysis of its own. SpaceX's April 23, 2025 reply is not subtle: EchoStar's argument "ignores the very purpose of a waiver—which is to authorize the deviation from a rule in appropriate circumstances," and the company asks the Commission to deny the appeal and "remove any cloud over SpaceX's ongoing deployment."

The waiver underpins the direct-to-cell service SpaceX is building with T-Mobile. The dispute is one of 125 filings in docket 23-135.

"EchoStar clearly wants to stymie competition by hamstringing SpaceX's SCS system, but its arguments against the waiver are frivolous"

— SpaceX, opposition filing, FCC docket 23-135

Sources: FCC ECFS filing → · Orbit Sentinel (docket 23-135)

Filed underDocket 23-135Supplemental Coverage from SpaceDirect-to-cellSpectrumSpacexEchostarFCC

Questions & answers

What is SpaceX opposing?
EchoStar's Application for Review, which argues the FCC's Bureaus erred in granting a waiver tied to SpaceX's Supplemental Coverage from Space operations.
What does SpaceX want the Commission to do?
Reject EchoStar's arguments and deny its Application for Review, to remove any cloud over SpaceX's ongoing deployment.
Did SpaceX support the rules it is now defending?
SpaceX says it generally supported the initial Supplemental Coverage from Space framework, though it had raised concerns about one decision.