Starlink · 29 Oct 2026
The FCC votes today on opening 482 MHz more spectrum to satellite-to-phone service, and AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile want their busiest 5G bands kept out
At its open meeting today, 29 Oct 2026, the FCC is set to vote on a proposal that would make 482 MHz more spectrum available to direct-to-device services like Starlink Mobile and raise the number of eligible bands from 5 to 13. This is a preview written before the vote. Adopting it would open a comment period, not set final rules.
The editor holds Tesla and SpaceX shares. Supercharged Daily is independent and not affiliated with either company. Nothing here is financial advice.
The FCC will vote tomorrow (October 29th) on a proposal that would make an additional 482MHz of spectrum available for direct-to-device satellite services, such as Starlink Mobile…
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 28, 2026
The vote
- The FCC's October open meeting starts at 10:30am ET (7:30am PT; ) today, 29 Oct 2026. "Modernizing the Supplemental Coverage from Space Rules" is the second item on the agenda.
- The FCC says the proposal "would make an additional 482 megahertz of spectrum available for Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS)." According to Covington's summary of the draft, it would raise the number of eligible bands from five to thirteen.
- The same summary says the draft would relax leasing requirements. It would also end the need for a waiver when a satellite operator holds eligible terrestrial spectrum itself, rather than leasing it from a carrier.
The fight
- The carriers and their trade group, CTIA, want the 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz bands taken out of the proposal, Capacity reports. They argue that about 300 million users depend on those bands and that satellite use in them isn't technically feasible. They met senior FCC staff on 20 Oct.
- In its own filing, T-Mobile says satellite interference could cut uplink speeds by 88% to 99%, and up to 96% of a cell site's uplink coverage area could be lost.
- According to Merritt's summary of the filings, SpaceX met the FCC on 23 Oct. It asked for the 902–928 MHz band to be added to the satellite-to-phone rules, along with looser interference rules and coverage requirements in line with terrestrial networks.
What happens next
- Today's vote is on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. If it passes, comments would be due 60 days after it's published in the Federal Register, per Covington. Final rules, and which bands make it in, come later.
- The draft can still change before the vote. I'll update this page once the FCC releases the adopted text.
The hold-it-yourself route suits SpaceX. Capacity reports that SpaceX's roughly $17 billion purchase of EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block licences was approved in May, with a follow-on EchoStar deal worth $2.6 billion. My take: the fewer carrier leases Starlink Mobile needs, the less leverage AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have over it.
Sources: FCC, October 2026 Open Commission Meeting; Federal Register Sunshine Act notice (29 Oct 2026); Covington, Inside Global Tech (15 Oct 2026); Capacity (28 Oct 2026); Sawyer Merritt on X (28 Oct 2026). Figures are as of 29 Oct 2026, before the vote.
— Alex R
