Womble Bond Dickinson attorney Barlow Keener is quoted in a Jan. 14 Communications Daily article on “Spectrum and Cross-border Clarity Are Supplemental Space Coverage Musts: FCBA Speakers”.

At a recent FCBA event, several industry executives told attendees that additional spectrum should be devoted to supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service. Recent natural disasters, such as the California wildfires and hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina, have made this need apparent, the speakers said.

Keener said the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology has been granting experimental licenses for satellite-to-device texting since the mid-2010s. However, the industry gained significant momentum after Globalstar partnered with Apple in 2022 to introduce emergency SOS messaging on iPhones, followed by SpaceX teaming up with T-Mobile. These milestones spurred the FCC to develop an SCS framework, which was officially adopted in March, Keener explained.

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