FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2026
Contact: contact@safesatellite.org
Satellite Safety Alliance Files Comments Opposing Ligado Networks’ Proposed Partnership with AST SpaceMobile
Ligado’s Application Poses Serious Interference Concerns, Technical Failings, and Regulatory Shortcomings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Satellite Safety Alliance has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing Ligado Networks’ application to replace its single geostationary satellite with a constellation of 96 low-Earth orbit satellites in partnership with AST SpaceMobile. The Alliance, representing GPS, aviation, weather, water, and satellite communications users of the L-band, warned that the proposed system poses substantial and undefined harmful interference risks to critical and safety-of-life services—including GPS, air traffic control communications, and weather data.
The comments also explained that Ligado has failed to demonstrate that it has completed the coordination required to protect other users of L-band spectrum. Further, Ligado’s proposed partnership with AST would violate the conditions of the company’s terrestrial authority as granted by the FCC in 2020, effectively terminating that authority.
SSA offered the following statement:
Ligado’s proposed partnership with AST SpaceMobile threatens critical infrastructure, safety-of-life operations, and U.S. space and satellite leadership. Ligado has done nothing to demonstrate otherwise. Ligado’s partnership with AST would operate more satellites at different orbits and potentially much higher power levels, substantially worsening those risks. The company’s bankruptcy litigation and Viasat’s Petition to Deny also reveal that Ligado failed to coordinate with L-band spectrum operators and obscured that fact to the FCC. Given the well-documented history of interference concerns from Ligado, it is vital that Ligado provide information to allow for a meaningful review of the risks proposed by its new AST-run constellation.
Ligado has warehoused valuable L-band spectrum for over two decades while moving from one unworkable scheme to the next. The FCC should turn the page on this saga by finding that Ligado’s latest plan with AST constructively terminates its terrestrial authority and grant the petitions for reconsideration of the 2020 Ligado Order.
Background
• Ligado-AST poses interference risks: The proposal potentially threatens critical services in the L-band like GPS—which the National Institutes of Standards and Technology determined in 2019 had contributed over $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy—as well as aviation safety-of-life operations, NOAA weather satellites, and satellite communications used for air traffic control over oceanic airspace. Because GPS receivers “hear” distant signals from Medium Earth Orbit, even minor increases in the noise floor can degrade performance and disrupt safety-critical services.
• A fundamentally different system: Ligado’s current authorization covers a single geostationary satellite operating at roughly 36,000 km. The proposed SkyTerra Next system would consist of 96 satellites orbiting at 690 km, resulting in potentially up to 30 dB higher power levels at the Earth’s surface, transmissions immediately adjacent to the GPS band at 1559 MHz, and a dynamic interference environment that is materially more complex than the current static system. Ligado has failed to provide necessary technical information that can be used to show how its proposed operations will protect other L-band users, including comprehensive aggregate interference analyses needed for the FCC or stakeholders to fully evaluate these risks.
• Ligado’s failure to coordinate: Ligado told the FCC it had completed coordination with Inmarsat and other L-band operators. However, Inmarsat’s own sworn declarations filed in federal court, and Viasat’s Petition to Deny Ligado’s application directly contradict this claim. Ligado similarly presents no evidence that it has completed coordination with any other operators.
• The end of Ligado’s terrestrial authority: The FCC’s 2020 Ligado Order conditioned Ligado’s terrestrial network authority on the company providing integrated satellite/terrestrial service. Ligado has never provided any terrestrial service to date. And under the proposed arrangement with AST, Ligado would not be providing or marketing its own satellite service—AST would. Implementation of the Ligado-AST arrangement therefore should sever Ligado’s terrestrial authority.
• Unresolved petitions for reconsideration: Eight petitions for reconsideration of the 2020 Ligado Order—filed by more than twenty parties including NTIA, aviation groups, and GPS stakeholders—remain pending before the FCC. Congress acted on these concerns, mandating a National Academies study finding the 2020 Ligado Order inadequate to protect incumbent services. The FCC should follow Congress’s lead, and grant those petitions, and rescind the 2020 Ligado Order.
Read the filed FCC comments here.
About the Satellite Safety Alliance
The Satellite Safety Alliance is a broad-based group of companies, organizations and institutions that provide and rely on GPS, satellite communications services, aviation navigation equipment and essential weather and other environmental data to keep the world safe, connected anytime and anywhere, and contributing to the nation’s economic growth. The alliance seeks to protect critical satellite communications services whose operations are under threat from harmful interference such as the misguided proposals from Ligado Networks.
More information is available at safesatellite.org.