SpaceX said in its latest filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that the agency should ignore Dish Network's "baseless attempt" to block funding for its Starlink network.
The company formally pushed back Dish's previous call to block SpaceX from acquiring a key designation that would grant it FCC broadband funding.
The filing, which was submitted late Tuesday, claimed that Dish's effort to block the designation would only delay "connecting unserved Americans."
SpaceX said that Dish's "facially spurious filing" was yet another example of its abuse of FCC resources and its effort to "expropriate the 12 GHz band."
Dish previously said that it was raising valid concerns over the "interference" SpaceX would generate in the 12 GHz band. Starlink has been seeking to be designated Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) under the federal Communications Act.
Getting the designation would be essential for its operations in some states where it had already won federal broadband funding. This included a tentative $885.51 million award over the next 10 years from the agency's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).
Under the fund, SpaceX - through its Starlink program - would need to provide broadband services to at least 642,925 homes and businesses in underserved areas in 35 states. SpaceX will need the money to partially subsidize its ambitious Starlink project, which involved the deployment of hundreds of low-Earth-orbit satellites.
Dish currently does not have a stake in the home-internet segment as it is only a satellite TV provider. However, the company is planning to build a 5G mobile broadband network that will eventually use the same 12 GHz band that it uses for its satellite TV service. Dish claims that SpaceX's Starlink network could cause interference.
In its petition filed last week, Dish said that SpaceX's request for ETC status "should be denied or deferred, pending the resolution of the DBS [Direct Broadcast Satellite] interference concerns." It said that it is not against the issuance of an ETC status for SpaceX in other frequency bands.
Dish told the FCC that SpaceX's proposed modifications to its satellite systems could adversely affect reception at its DBS consumer dishes. The company said that it has already commissioned a study that will use SpaceX's data to prove its claims.
