The 5G for 12GHz Coalition returned fire on a SpaceX contention Dish Network’s use of the frequency would hinder its Starlink satellite broadband service, accusing the business of failing to provide technical proof of its claims.

In a statement, the coalition claimed its research had found little risk of harmful interference to SpaceX’s fleet of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the vast majority of cases, adding the company had drawn spurious conclusions based on limited testing.

Dish Network is a member of the 5G for 12GHz Coalition, alongside companies including Dell: a representative for the cable operator’s mobile subsidiary told Mobile World Live the group’s view reflected its own.

The coalition stated testing conducted in the 18 months since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began investigating the use of the 12GHz band had found coexistence was feasible, with 99.85 per cent of non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite terminals “experiencing no risk of harmful interference alongside 5G”.

It noted SpaceX had failed to submit any expert technical details during the FCC proceeding, arguing the satellite operator had instead “submitted a self-produced political document in the guise of” proper analysis.

Anti-5G
SpaceX last month submitted research to the FCC claiming Dish Wireless’ use of the 12GHz spectrum would cause “harmful interference” to Starlink services along with potential outages.

But the coalition asserted SpaceX attempted to imply “nationwide conclusions based on results it generated from a single cherry-picked partial economic area”, Las Vegas, a geography it stated was nearly ten-times as unfavourable for 5G and satellite coexistence as the national average.

It stated SpaceX “grossly distorts the 5G network configuration to create interference with NGSO terminals” and accused the company of conducing a campaign of misinformation which “promulgates an anti-5G narrative”.

SpaceX last month called for Starlink users to file objections with the FCC over Dish Network’s plans to use the 12GHz band for 5G services, which had resulted in some 95,704 responses as of 7 July.