Swarm Charged $900,000 by FCC for Launching Unauthorized Satellite.

by JE Cool of tech4today.net

The launching of the satellite by Swarm was held in the last January where FCC rejected their request to deploy and operation, citing concerns about the company's ability. The California-based start-up founded by former Google and Apple engineers in 2016 also agreed to intensify FCC oversight, and a pre-launch requirement notices to the FCC for three years.

The Federal Communications said on Thursday that Swarm Technology Inc will pay a penalty of $900,000 fine for launching and operating four small experimental communication satellites that risked "satellite collisions" and threatened "critical commercial and government satellite operations."

The investigation found that Swarm operated unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and other equipment experiments prior to satellite launch. Also Swarm had illegally transmitted signals between earth stations in the state of Georgia and the satellites for over a week.

However,  FCC granted permission in August for Swarm to reactivate the satellites and said then it is "fully committed to complying with all the regulations and has been working closely with the FCC," considering that its satellites are "100 percent trackable." Also Swarm aims to provide low-cost satellite internet service and plans to use a constellation of 100 satellites.

After winning FCC approval SpaceX launched three more satellites for Swarm on a Falcon 9 Rocket, earlier this month. Swarm co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Sara Spangelo said in a statement on Thursday that the company approves the FCC decision "and appreciates the FCC's ongoing support for Swarm's mission."

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Reilly stated the size of the fine "is probably not significant enough to deter future behavior, but the negative press coverage is likely to prevent this company and others from attempting to do this again." O'Reilly also added that an initial penalty negotiated by FCC staff was rejected by some commissioners, which led to reopening settlement talks.

Source: CNBC

Author: JE Cool
Contact Info: jecooltech4today@gmail.com