Ofcom Updates on UK Satellite Broadband Fees and Project Kuiper

The UK communications regulator has today published a shotgun blast of new satellite broadband consultations, which cover everything from changing satellite gateway fees to introducing another new gateway licence for Amazon’s future Project Kuiper network. Ofcom has also proposed short duration licences for mobile (4G/5G) networks in the lower 2.3GHz band.

We’ll start with Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which is already in the process of building a global mega-constellation of 3,236 compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to deliver affordable ultrafast home broadband and mobile (4G, 5G) services (here). Ofcom has already granted several licences for this (here) and they’ve today proposed to grant another one (here).

The new one is for an NGSO Earth Station Licence for a terrestrial gateway site in Bude (Cornwall), which is needed in order to help Kuiper provide “high-speed, low-latency broadband services” to households, businesses and other customers in the UK, as well as backhaul connectivity to telecommunications carriers. We see no reason why this would be rejected, so it’s likely to be approved in a few short months time (consultation is open until 29th July 2025).

Satellite Gateway fees

Ofcom’s next consultation considers a change to satellite gateway fees (i.e. gateways reflect the components in satellite networks that connect the data beamed via spacecraft to the internet). The regulator states that in recent years there has been a “significant growth in demand for spectrum from the satellite sector” as it provides connectivity to an increasing number of households and businesses.

However, increasing demand means that NGSO gateways can contribute to spectrum scarcity (both for other satellite users and fixed services), which is why Ofcom says they’re now proposing (here) to use Administered Incentive Pricing (AIP) rather than flat fees for NGSO satellite gateway licences.

The regulator claims this “will encourage users to think carefully about their spectrum needs, incentivise the highest value uses, and in turn promote economic efficiency and growth“. But most operators would say they do that already and so will probably view this as a way of increasing their costs.

“We already use this approach for satellite gateway licences for geostationary systems (GSO), and we are proposing to update our AIP fee formula to promote efficient use of spectrum. We are also currently considering making Q/V and E spectrum bands available for satellite gateways, and the consultation proposes how we would calculate fees in these bands,” said Ofcom. The consultation will run until 9th September 2025.

Short duration licences in the lower 2.3GHz band

Finally, Ofcom has today opened another new consultation on introducing short notice, short duration licences for outdoor and indoor use in the 2320-2340MHz band for use by the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) and Shared Access (SA) communities. But it would also allow other users wishing to deploy a short duration network in spectrum supported by mobile technology to rapidly secure a licence to use this spectrum on a short-term basis.

“This provides further support for innovative new spectrum users, and could open up opportunities to use mobile technologies (e.g. 4G and 5G) for news-gathering and broadcast of major events … We envisage that this new licence could support a range of use cases, including use of 5G cameras for breaking news stories, sports coverage, pop-up mobile coverage and private network demonstrator events,” said Ofcom. The consultation will run until 2nd September 2025.