Brussels, 18 October. The US ambassador to the European Union, Andrew Puzder, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that European companies could face "very devastating" retaliation in the US market if the EU reserves most of the band for direct smartphone-to-satellite connections for European operators (Anadolu).
The European Commission's proposal could limit access to the frequencies for foreign companies, including SpaceX with its Starlink network and Amazon; SpaceX criticises the plan and warns that it could undermine connectivity in Ukraine, where Starlink is used by civilians and the military (Anadolu). "You don't make European companies more competitive by making US companies less competitive," Puzder said, while acknowledging Europe's right to protect sensitive government information (Anadolu, TASS). The word "devastating" was used in a conversation about allocating radio frequencies.
Background: At stake is the 2 GHz band for mobile satellite services: in Europe its licences are held by EchoStar and Viasat and expire in May 2027 (Light Reading). Under terms the European Commission proposed earlier this year, non-EU operators would get no more than a third of the frequencies; Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have discussed a joint bid for the spectrum, according to Bloomberg (Light Reading).
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