Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes, Anatel) has issued Starlink Brazil Holding a licence granting it ‘satellite exploration rights’. Starlink, which is backed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture, intends to deploy and operate a non-geostationary Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite system comprising 4,408 satellites operating in the Ku- and Ka-bands for the provision of a fixed-satellite service constellation. The company’s licence runs until 28 March 2027.
A second application – by California-based Swarm Technologies – was also approved by the watchdog. The concession, which was awarded to Swarm Brazil Satelites, expires on 7 September 2035. Swarm’s constellation will comprise 150 satellites in non-geostationary orbit. The company seeks to provide bidirectional data transmission services for telemetry and telecommand oriented to IoT applications.