SpaceX challenges the EU's 2 GHz reserve using EchoStar filings
What happened
At the European D2D Policy Forum in Brussels on June 19, SpaceX VP for Satellite Policy David Goldman stated that Starlink was explicitly told by US and other national regulators that they would not undertake national allocations of MSS spectrum, invoking EchoStar's global ITU priority as a basis to challenge the EU's COM(2026) 311 framework that reserves 2/3 of 2 GHz spectrum for European operators. SpaceX's position: it purchased EchoStar's global MSS licenses (FCC-approved May 13, ~$17B deal); those licenses carry pre-existing ITU priority filings globally, including in EU markets; the EU framework — which gives SpaceX access to at most 1/3 of the commercial block (≤10 MHz in Europe) — violates ITU priority rights. Via Satellite published an opinion piece on June 24 directly framing this as "A Test Case for Sovereignty in Satcom." Bloomberg covered SpaceX's criticism of the EU plan on June 18. The EU Telecom Council on June 9 saw ministers — including Spain — explicitly back the European reserve plan, signalling political will to defend the framework against US pressure.
Read-across for SES
SpaceX's ITU-priority argument, if accepted by the Commission or any CJEU challenge, would collapse the EU-reserved 1/3 governmental block and the new-EU-entrant block that underpin IRIS2 and SES's spectrum positioning. The EU Telecom Council's June 9 political backing is the first concrete signal that member states will defend the framework — a positive signal for SES. But SpaceX's argument is technically serious: EchoStar's global ITU filings pre-date COM(2026) 311 by years. Watch for Commission legal response and US USTR intervention.
As the brief filed it
SpaceX invokes EchoStar's global ITU priority filings to challenge EU's 2/3 European spectrum reserve under COM(2026) 311; VP Goldman made the explicit argument at D2D Policy Forum June 19; Via Satellite opinion piece June 24 puts this squarely on the policy agenda.