New ICLE Issue Brief Urges Overhaul of Outdated Satellite-Spectrum Rules
PORTLAND, Ore. (Aug. 12, 2026) — Outdated international spectrum rules are forcing satellite-broadband providers to leave valuable capacity unused, even when greater use would pose little risk to incumbent systems, according to a new issue brief from the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE). The brief calls on international regulators to replace 25-year-old interference limits with standards that reflect how modern satellite networks perform.
Authored by ICLE Senior Scholar Gerald Adams, the brief examines the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) equivalent power-flux density (EPFD) limits. These rules restrict how much signal power non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) systems may direct toward geostationary orbit (GSO) receivers when the systems share spectrum.
The current limits rely on outdated reference links, antenna models, propagation methods, and worst-case interference assumptions. They can force NGSO operators to avoid large portions of the GSO arc, reduce transmission power, and restrict the number of satellites that use the same frequencies over a given area. Those constraints reduce coverage and capacity even when harmful interference is unlikely.
“The current rules protect GSO systems against interference conditions that often bear little resemblance to how modern satellite networks operate,” Adams said. “Technical studies and field tests now give regulators a much stronger basis for protecting service quality while allowing far more productive use of scarce spectrum.”
The brief points to field tests in Romania, Colombia, Nigeria, Botswana, and Jordan that found NGSO systems could operate much closer to the GSO arc and make greater use of shared frequencies while keeping interference within proposed protection thresholds.
The brief recommends replacing legacy EPFD limits with performance-based standards that measure interference by its actual effect on service. For systems using adaptive coding and modulation (ACM), which adjusts data rates as signal conditions change, regulators can measure long-term throughput degradation and short-term increases in link unavailability. The brief also recommends appropriate performance measures for GSO services that do not use ACM.
Reform could increase satellite-spectrum capacity, lower the cost of providing broadband, and reduce the number of satellites needed to offer competitive service, Adams writes. Those changes would lower barriers to entry and strengthen competition among satellite providers and with terrestrial broadband networks.
The benefits could prove especially large in rural and remote communities, where building terrestrial networks often costs too much to attract providers even with government subsidies. More efficient satellite networks could expand broadband choices without requiring extensive new ground infrastructure.
“Modernizing these rules would allow operators to serve more people with the spectrum and infrastructure they already have,” Adams said. “Greater capacity and lower deployment costs can translate into stronger competition, lower prices, and better broadband options for communities that conventional networks have struggled to reach.”
The United States has already begun moving toward performance-based satellite-sharing rules through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The brief urges other national administrations to test and adopt similar approaches and use the resulting operational record to support international reform at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27).
The brief argues that WRC-27 offers regulators an opportunity to replace obsolete assumptions with rules grounded in measured performance. That approach would protect existing GSO services while giving NGSO systems greater freedom to use shared spectrum efficiently.
The full issue brief can be downloaded here. To arrange an interview with Adams, contact R.J. Lehmann at [email protected].