FCC drops the hard interference limits protecting SES's GEO fleet
What happened
FCC Report and Order 26-26 ("Modernizing Spectrum Sharing for Satellite Broadband") replaces the legacy Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) limits governing NGSO-into-GSO interference in the 10.7–12.7 GHz, 17.3–18.6 GHz, and 19.7–20.2 GHz bands with a performance-based framework: NGSO systems (Starlink, soon Kuiper) must hold co-frequency GSO networks (SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat) to a long-term protection criterion of 3% time-weighted-average throughput degradation and a short-term criterion of 0.1% absolute increase in link unavailability — statistical, throughput-based tolerances replacing hard power-flux ceilings. FCC materials describe this as unlocking substantially more usable NGSO capacity in these bands, with economic-gain estimates cited in the $1.6B–$19.9B range. Two related amendments (47 CFR §§25.146(a)(3), 25.289(a)(2)) are indefinitely delayed pending further review.
Read-across for SES
SES's GEO fleet (Ku-band services, including the legacy comms cash engine and O3b mPOWER's Ku-band elements) loses the hard EPFD ceiling that previously capped how much interference NGSO systems could impose on it, replaced by a statistical throughput-degradation tolerance that a large, dense NGSO constellation can more easily satisfy while still measurably degrading GSO link quality. This is a structural, rules-level tailwind for Starlink/Kuiper's Ku-band expansion at GSO incumbents' direct expense — layered on top of the already-adverse Starlink pricing/DoD-subsidy thesis (SPCX IPO / Starlink pricing aggression thread). Effective today; actual interference/throughput impact on SES's fleet will take time to show up and is worth revisiting once SES, Intelsat, or Eutelsat comment publicly.
As the brief filed it
[AGE: <24h] FCC Order 26-26 takes effect today, replacing hard EPFD interference limits with a statistical throughput-based GSO-protection standard in Ku-band — a rules-level tailwind for Starlink/Kuiper against SES's GEO fleet.