Fleet Space Technologies has expanded its global footprint with its acquisition of rights to new, long-term, frequency filings in Europe — in the firm’s first commercial venture on the European continent, Fleet has purchased the frequency of assets of a Luxembourg-based company, giving the company effective, operational control over an existing frequency filing, adding to its already substantial holding of these mission-critical assets.
A filing provides a claim over spectrum and orbital resources for satellite networks with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Fleet’s newly acquired filing rights have seniority and that means means they will take priority over those that have been submitted more recently. The filings have been brought into use and Fleet will be able to use the new frequencies indefinitely, as long as it maintains a satellite on-orbit capable of using them.
The rapid growth in the global smallsat industry and LEO constellations — such as Fleet’s — has put increasing pressure on the limited radio frequency spectrum available for data transmission. The ITU frequency filing system is designed to support coordination among satellite operators and prevent interference between spacecraft using the shared resources.
In this context, the new frequency filings help secure Fleet’s access to uplink and downlink resources in the targeted frequency band, maximizing service availability to its satellite customers worldwide. Having a presence in Europe will also stimulate the recruitment and exchange of highly skilled talent between Europe and Australia as well as further improve established relationships with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The requirement to incorporate assets from other companies leaving the industry is driven by sustained growth for Fleet across a multitude of sectors. This includes the signing of long-term, satellite aided, critical Earth transition mineral agreements with some of the world’s largest and most innovative miners.
Fleet also confirmed the firm’s first defence contract in April of 2023, signing a AUD$6.4 million contract with Australia’s Defense Space Command, a Series C funding round of $50 million in May and was recently awarded A$4 million Demonstrator Program contract by the Australian Space Agency to harness seismic data at the Moon’s South Pole. This key strategic acquisition will underpin further growth.
“As Fleet Space Technologies company is now providing innovative universal connectivity solutions through its network of satellites across the globe to sectors as diverse as critical mineral exploration and defence. To meet this sustained demand, we depend on access to the shared but limited radio frequency spectrum to operate our services. Securing access to these new frequency filings puts us in a strong position globally and gives us and our customers a real competitive advantage. It also represents another important step in our international expansion, by giving us a commercial foothold in Europe to complement our operations in Australia, USA, Canada and Chile.” — Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-Founder, Fleet Space Technologies