A long-awaited vote on Boeing’s broadband satellite constellation is expected to take place in the next few days.
On Thursday, Jessica Rosenworcel, the Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, advanced the proposal to a vote. According to Bloomberg, requests like these usually indicate strong odds for approval (because FCC chairs seldom advance votes that they don’t intend to vote ‘yes’ on.)
Boeing has been working on a satellite constellation for broadband since 2016. For most of that time, Boeing’s proposal has been stuck in the “public comment” period. In the meantime, the company’s closest ideological competitor, SpaceX Starlink, has launched over 1,735 satellites. And Boeing isn’t expected to be the last company to get a piece of the satellite internet space: Amazon, OneWeb, and Airbus have proposed their own constellations.
The proposed constellation will service the U.S., including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.