Space

SpaceX Found a Way Around the FCC

The company’s spectacular IPO obscured a quieter breakthrough that could transform satellite communications.

Thomas W. Hazlett | 10.10.2026 8:00 AM

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Re-entry of a Starlink satellite, Whispering Pines Camp in the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta (Alan Dyer / VWPics/Newscom)

SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) attracted intense interest for 2 trillion reasons. But one spectacular feature of this historic launch has barely blipped the public's radar screen. 

Radio spectrum, the "invisible resource," is the superhighway of the modern economy. Yet a federal agency has traditionally controlled it, defining exactly what wireless technologies go where and dictating how they roll out. These intricate rules limit some rudimentary forms of interference, but typically block much more—throttling competition and innovation. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took over three decades to figure out how to create cellular licenses, freezing a World War II technology until the administration of President Ronald Reagan. But since then, market mechanisms have, on occasion, advanced. License auctions commenced in 1994, and in some allocations "flexible use" spectrum rights were authorized. Competitors could define their own services: Why not texting, data, or video, not just voice? Why not digital instead of analog? The FCC now, in the most active bands, lets the market decide. It is hardly a coincidence that they are the most active. 

Rivalry has flourished, and a whole new wireless world has arrived. The iPhone and the competitive Google/Android platform have created a lush ecosystem for thousands of software developers. Applications from Pokémon to YouTube to Waze to WhatsApp to Lyft to Kindle have spontaneously taken seed. 

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