Regulators should charge differentiated fees to use radio spectrum based on the type of service provided by the satellite operator. That was the proposal put forward by Alejandro Guerra Najar, VP of Connectivity Sales for Latin America at Eutelsat.

Speaking during the first panel discussion at Convergencialatina's Satellite Map Day 2026, Guerra Najar argued that spectrum fees “should not be linked to the perceived commercial value of the service” and said the industry should move toward differentiated fee structures.

The current operating environment is one of multi-orbit operations that offer significant benefits to users—from resilience to application differentiation—but the existing fee structure penalizes that architecture because operators must pay a separate fee for each orbit. In Eutelsat's case, one fee applies to its geostationary operations and another to its LEO operations. “We face a double cost for using radio spectrum to meet a single service demand,” Guerra Najar said.

The Eutelsat executive proposed a fee structure based on the type of service being provided: services for mass-market consumers; trunk and backhaul services; and critical services for governments and defense. “Each of these three segments should be assessed differently,” he concluded.