The decision risks angering Washington as it will limit the range available to US companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon Leo, and limit their rapid expansion. In practice, it would mean moving from a range of frequencies today controlled entirely by American companies to one in which they would get, at best, a third.
The proposal will be made public on Wednesday. It will divide the available frequency into three 10MHz blocks. One will be set up for secure government communications, including through the main EU IRIS² constellation, one dedicated to start-ups in Europe, and a third that can be allocated to European or non-European companies.
It also comes a few days after the institutions of the European Union reached an agreement on the details of the new trade agreement between the European Union and the United States.
The commission is expected to frame the measure not as an effort to exclude foreign companies, but as an effort to preserve European control over key assets — as other administrations are doing, including the United States, one of the people said.
Previously, spectrum licenses were granted to Viasat and EchoStar, two US satellite operators, since 2009 for mobile communications and are set to expire in 2027.
“It’s time to decide if we want our space to be stronger or more dependent,” Spain’s Digital Transformation Minister Óscar López he said at a meeting of EU digital ministers last month, backed by France in a call to save coveted frequencies for European companies in the name of freedom. “It’s time to make the European satellite industry great again.”
