SpaceX Receives FCC Approval That Can increase Starlink Network Speeds Significantly!

SpaceX has received a crucial Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorization for its Starlink satellite internet constellation. The firm, which has rapidly built the Starlink network and launched more than four thousand satellites to date, nevertheless suffered from high usage in certain areas and low in others even as it rushed to populate orbital shells with the satellites. This led to a degradation of internet speeds for users in North America, but now, it appears as if the internet speeds might improve. The FCC has approved SpaceX's request to increase the transmit duty cycles of its second-generation user dishes after SpaceX submitted data to the Commission outlining that doing so would not violate any radiofrequency emissions regulations.

FCC Approves Massive Transmit Duty Cycle Upgrade For Starlink

SpaceX has been investigating ways to make its Starlink user dishes more potent for quite some time now. The firm first filed an application with the FCC in June last year seeking approval to launch new Starlink satellite dishes. These would feature several upgrades over their predecessors, including a higher transmit duty cycle. In networking, the transmit duty cycle is the time a terminal spends connected and communicating with a transmitting body.

SpaceX's application revealed that the new dishes would have a duty cycle of 14% - implying that they would communicate with the satellites for longer. However, this percentage was later reduced to 10.5% due to changes in the Commission's radiofrequency calculation. Following the application for the second generation user dishes, SpaceX submitted another request to the FCC to test 200 user dishes at higher duty cycles to evaluate their performance.

Keeping up the pace of upgrading its dishes, SpaceX followed these steps with another application in December when it asked the FCC to allow it to increase its duty cycle to 17.5% permanently.

SpaceX's test results for the Starlink user terminal's transmit duty cycle. Image: SES-MOD-20211216-01909

SpaceX submitted this application after testing the Starlink user dishes at the maximum transmit duty cycle of 100% - or in other words, a scenario where they would communicate with the satellites all the time. These tests utilized the flat shape of the second-generation Starlink dishes, and they demonstrated that as opposed to the new rules, which had laid down a maximum duty cycle of 10.5%, the dishes could in fact transmit up to 17.5% of the time, without exceeding any radiation hazard limits.

The FCC has approved the application for the higher duty cycle, which will improve Starlink's performance. The longer duration of the dishes communications period will directly impact the upload speeds for Starlink users. This is because the terminals will spend a more extended period communicating with the satellites; however, the overall speed can also improve significantly since the terminals will be able to make up frequently for information losses between them and the orbiting spacecraft.

Additionally, the longer the dishes communicate, the faster they establish links to newer Starlink satellites. This will reduce switchover times and lead to fewer connection drops. SpaceX has launched more than four thousand Starlink satellites to date. It plans to launch tens of thousands more to gain a foothold in the market that will open soon as Amazon's Kuiper subsidiary secures a rocket and launches its own satellites.

Written by Ramish Zafar