Remarks of Chief of Staff Brooke Donilon at the USTTI Satellite Connectivity Training in Ghana
Thank you all for taking the time to be here with us at this Satellite Connectivity Training. I would also like to thank USTTI for making this training a reality, as well as our colleagues at the Ghanaian National Communication Authority for hosting us.
I am happy to have several of my colleagues from across the U.S. Government here this week including from NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management and Office of Policy and International Affairs, as well as the Federal Communication Commission’s Office of International Affairs and the Space Bureau.
It’s also great to have representatives from U.S. industry here, including Starlink, Amazon Leo, AST SpaceMobile, and Stellar Frequencies LLC, who will provide helpful insights on various topics.
Finally, we’re grateful to our colleague from the International Telecommunication Union, who will provide key information on the ITU satellite filing process.
Overarching Goals
We are here to develop an ongoing dialogue. I look forward to hearing from you, the participants, as well as the various stakeholders from across industry these next few days.
Satellite is certainly a hot topic, and, as we have heard already today, there is a lot to consider.
What unites us, across borders and across generations, is the enduring human desire to explore what lies beyond the horizon and into space.
Few recent moments have captured that spirit more powerfully than the success of the Artemis II lunar mission. Millions of people around the world paused to watch that launch, to witness humanity circle the Moon once again, and to celebrate the safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
For a moment, we were reminded that space is not just about technology—it is about imagination, ambition, and the belief that together we can achieve great things.
Over the next few days, the goal of this training is to collaborate on the common ground among us, share lessons learned from our own experiences, and understand challenges from an African perspective.
Satellite Connectivity
Today, satellite communications are connecting the world and delivering global access to information. While Geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites have served a valuable connectivity mission for decades, low- (LEO) and medium- (MEO) Earth satellite constellations in non-Geostationary orbits—or NGSOs—offer new opportunities that complement existing services.
Importantly: there’s plenty of room for all LEO, MEO, and GEO operators in today's satellite industry. In short: there’s a lot of space in space.
Additional options mean greater connectivity and resilience with new space vendors working with existing space vendors on novel uses of technology in space (like power stations, manufacturing, and data centers)—all powered and supported by satellite communications.
While GSO constellations remain useful as providers of reliable and continuous coverage, the rise of LEO providers presents new opportunities for the entire satellite industry.
We believe you share our view that satellite communications enable us to connect the unconnected, bring relief in disasters, provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises, advance the space economy, and continue to build and ensure a secure and trustworthy global Information and Communication Technology ecosystem.
NTIA, alongside our colleagues from across the U.S. Government, is working to improve access to secure and trusted satellite connectivity, and we hope to discuss with you this week how your countries can deliver such connectivity to your people.
U.S. Approaches to Satellite Policy and Regulation
In the United States, we are pursuing a technology-neutral connectivity policy. With the advancements of fixed wireless and satellite, there are multiple ways to provide reliable, high-speed broadband to households across our country. In fact, satellite has the potential to connect communities with gigabit speeds, if we provide the right regulatory environment both domestically and internationally to allow the technology to advance and flourish.
For example, NTIA oversees a grant program known as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, commonly known as BEAD. During the pandemic, Congress allocated $42.45 billion to our States and Territories to close the broadband gaps across our country. NTIA was charged with administering the program.
Initially, NTIA said it would only allow states to fund fiber connections with these dollars. This resulted in extreme examples of states seeking to spend more than $100,000 to connect a single household. At that rate, even $42 billion wasn’t going to go very far.
Under the Trump Administration, NTIA changed course. Last year, we opened the program up to all technologies, including satellite and fixed wireless. The result—universal broadband, at half the cost.
With almost every state plan now approved, NTIA is on track to save $21 billion. Overall, the average cost to connect a household in our program is under $5,000. This is in large part because almost a quarter of the households in our program will be served by satellite.
I share this example to illustrate how the U.S. has demonstrated that satellite is a key ingredient to broadband connectivity, particularly in remote areas. And your country doesn’t necessarily need a grant program to see these same results. Satellites are launching now, and providers are already working with you to connect your constituents.
We don’t need more government money to get the job done—we need an openness to this technology and environment to allow this service to continue to advance and evolve. We need political will.
Keeping pace with the ongoing innovations in the satellite industry will allow you to deliver policies and regulations that enable the growth of both domestic and international markets.
From the U.S. perspective, we are working across the government to ensure that policies and regulations are not overly burdensome or complicated for industry so that industry can focus their energies on building the next generation of satellite technologies.
Our colleagues at the FCC just released a new order on modernizing spectrum sharing for satellite broadband that seeks to develop less stringent Equivalent Power Flux Density or EPFD limits, which will increase NGSO capacity between 100-700 percent—ultimately leading to gigabit speeds for NGSOs. That’s fiber speeds, from space, at a fraction of the cost. More on that from our FCC colleagues later.
Meanwhile, our State Department colleagues, alongside NASA, worked together with international stakeholders to establish the Artemis Accords, which provide a common set of principles to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space.
As of today, there are 67 nations that have signed on to the Accords, including several African countries like Angola, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Senegal.
Another important piece to the proliferation of satellite communications is spectrum. Both the FCC and NTIA have been working to open up a substantial amount of spectrum to enable new, large commercial constellations.
These are a few of the U.S. approaches to policy and regulation.
We recognize the incredible strides the various Ministries and Space Agencies across the African continent have made in the satellite ecosystem and, of course, we know that African satellite solutions are expanding rapidly. I am interested to learn more about your country’s policies and regulations this week and how they impact your industry.
We would welcome the opportunity to exchange best practices related to enabling policies and regulations for the satellite industry.
There may also be opportunities where we might partner across satellite sectors including Earth observation, remote sensing, space traffic coordination, and safety services to strengthen our bilateral and regional coordination.
Looking Ahead to the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference
Turning to the international stage, we are engaging with partners bilaterally and through multilateral fora, particularly the ITU, to exchange best practices and ensure fair, efficient and economical use of spectrum and space orbits.
With the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference not far off, we have an excellent opportunity to begin to discuss the various topics under study and share details of our various positions. With about 80 percent of the agenda items for WRC-27 focused on satellite, it’s critical that we have the exchanges we're having here this week and beyond.
I understand that there have been ongoing, often contentious conversations in the “R” sector with regards to allocations enabling direct-to-device applications, equitable access to the Q/V bands, and unauthorized use of NGSOs.
For instance, on unauthorized use, the U.S. is firmly of the view that the ITU’s rules already provide Member States sovereignty over licensing in their own jurisdiction. Establishing technical controls like geo-fencing and mandatory terminal deactivation could disrupt safety of life services (e.g., disaster recovery) or create unnecessary technical barriers to the deployment of global satellite systems more broadly, at the expense of new satellite entrants.
We are very interested in discussing this as well as other contentious issues at the ITU to identify areas of possible alignment.
And, of course, we would also like to discuss the less contentious topics under review in the “R” sector like those concerning lunar communications and the process of determining how industry might utilize those radio frequencies.
In our region, five countries have already joined the U.S. position on Agenda Item 1.15, adding the first ever spectrum allocations on the moon—and available to all who join the U.S. on the moon. We look forward to the widespread enthusiasm this agenda item will have at the WRC and ask for your support.
Conclusion
A major priority for the Trump Administration is to engage with governments and industry to share best practices on digital infrastructure policies and regulations. A strong, common regulatory foundation makes it easier for both American and African industries to thrive.
While we may not agree on all the details, having a forum through which we can engage constructively on these issues is vital. This training will hopefully be the beginning of an ongoing conversation and exchange of experiences.
Thank you, and I look forward to our discussions.