Rivada brushes off regulatory setback for proposed broadband constellation
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TAMPA, Fla. — Rivada Space Networks remains confident it can reclaim priority Ka-band spectrum rights for nearly 600 proposed broadband satellites, more than two months after Liechtenstein’s telecoms regulator rescinded its license.
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“We continue to discuss the matter with the regulator, and we are confident that we can reach an agreement to use the Liechtenstein filings,” Rivada spokesperson Brian Carney said Dec. 13.
Carney said Liechtenstein’s Office for Communications (AK) withdrew its spectrum filing at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations, over “a difference of opinion about the timing of the deposit of a performance bond with the regulator,” but declined to give details.
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AK director Rainer Schnepfleitner also declined to discuss what he said was an open proceeding.
However, he confirmed it is possible Rivada could reapply for the priority spectrum rights before mid-2026, when the company has to have deployed half its proposed 576 satellites under the ITU’s constellation deployment rules.
Last year, the ITU granted Rivada a waiver for the first milestone under these rules, allowing the company to miss a deadline to have 10% of the constellation in low Earth orbit by September 2023.
Schnepfleitner said at the time that a launch shortage and technology development challenges had made it difficult for companies to meet deployment rules the ITU adopted in 2019, before COVID-19 hammered global supply chains.
Waiting game
Rivada, which is based in Germany but owned by U.S. wireless technology company Rivada Networks, aims to begin deploying its first satellites in 2025 under a multi-launch agreement with SpaceX.
In February 2023, Rivada awarded a $2.4 billion contract for building 300 satellites to Florida-headquartered Terran Orbital, which was recently sold to Lockheed Martin after uncertainty about how the agreement would be financed weighed on the manufacturer.
While Rivada remains guarded about plans to finance the constellation, called Outernet, it has said sovereign wealth funds are among investors that have provided the financial commitments needed to meet its mid-2026 deployment commitment.
According to Rivada, it has also amassed over $13 billion worth of pricing agreements from potential customers for Outernet, which would target enterprise and government markets.
Another route
In November, Rivada announced it had filed for additional spectrum at the ITU across Ka, Q, and V bands — this time through Germany.
The filing includes priority access to 400 megahertz of lower Ka-band frequencies newly made available to non-geostationary operators over the Americas.
“The German Outernet-1 filing is not a replacement of the Liechtenstein filings,” Rivada’s Carney said, but “if necessary the German filing is fully capable of meeting the needs of our customers and our business plan.”
The company also recently announced the creation of Rivada Select, a wholly U.S.-owned subsidiary that would serve the specialized needs of U.S. government and defense customers.
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TAMPA, Fla. — Rivada Space Networks remains confident it can reclaim priority Ka-band spectrum rights for nearly 600 proposed broadband satellites, more than two months after Liechtenstein’s telecoms regulator rescinded its license.
“We continue to discuss the matter with the regulator, and we are confident that we can reach an agreement to use the Liechtenstein filings,” Rivada spokesperson Brian Carney said Dec. 13.
Carney said Liechtenstein’s Office for Communications (AK) withdrew its spectrum filing at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations, over “a difference of opinion about the timing of the deposit of a performance bond with the regulator,” but declined to give details.
AK director Rainer Schnepfleitner also declined to discuss what he said was an open proceeding.
However, he confirmed it is possible Rivada could reapply for the priority spectrum rights before mid-2026, when the company has to have deployed half its proposed 576 satellites under the ITU’s constellation deployment rules.
Last year, the ITU granted Rivada a waiver for the first milestone under these rules, allowing the company to miss a deadline to have 10% of the constellation in low Earth orbit by September 2023.
Schnepfleitner said at the time that a launch shortage and technology development challenges had made it difficult for companies to meet deployment rules the ITU adopted in 2019, before COVID-19 hammered global supply chains.
Waiting game
Rivada, which is based in Germany but owned by U.S. wireless technology company Rivada Networks, aims to begin deploying its first satellites in 2025 under a multi-launch agreement with SpaceX.
In February 2023, Rivada awarded a $2.4 billion contract for building 300 satellites to Florida-headquartered Terran Orbital, which was recently sold to Lockheed Martin after uncertainty about how the agreement would be financed weighed on the manufacturer.
While Rivada remains guarded about plans to finance the constellation, called Outernet, it has said sovereign wealth funds are among investors that have provided the financial commitments needed to meet its mid-2026 deployment commitment.
According to Rivada, it has also amassed over $13 billion worth of pricing agreements from potential customers for Outernet, which would target enterprise and government markets.
Another route
In November, Rivada announced it had filed for additional spectrum at the ITU across Ka, Q, and V bands — this time through Germany.
The filing includes priority access to 400 megahertz of lower Ka-band frequencies newly made available to non-geostationary operators over the Americas.
“The German Outernet-1 filing is not a replacement of the Liechtenstein filings,” Rivada’s Carney said, but “if necessary the German filing is fully capable of meeting the needs of our customers and our business plan.”
The company also recently announced the creation of Rivada Select, a wholly U.S.-owned subsidiary that would serve the specialized needs of U.S. government and defense customers.
