Legal aspects of satellite communications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Their Use of Satellite Services and (Space) Law

“…With those caveats, the frequencies and the attendant orbital slots or orbits to be used by satellites for controlling and guidance of UAVs have to fit within the extended process of allocation of frequency-bands to types of services, allotments of frequencies to certain services, and assignment to the relevant operators thereof. 45 In view of the relative novelty of UAVs and their operations, until recently no specific frequency-bands were allocated to this kind of service, which left it unclear whether specific services and their operators could be allotted/assigned frequencies under different headings within Article 1 of the Radio Regulations. One could have considered UAV control and guidance, for example, to be comprised within the "mobile-satellite service," 46 the "aeronautical mobile-satellite service," 47 the "aeronautical mobile-satellite (OR)** service," 48 the "radiodetermination-satellite service," 49 the "radionavigation-satellite service," 50 the "safety service," 51 and/or the "special service."…”