According to US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules, all commercial equipment receiving non-US satellite signals on US territory must be licenced by the FCC. However, the FCC can grant a waiver to those rules.

In seeking authorisation for Galileo signals in the US, the European Commission has requested such a waiver. If granted, US Galileo users will gain reassurance that Galileo's signals are recognised and authorised by the US Government and can therefore benefit from using Galileo in full confidence.

The FCC has released a public notice seeking comments on the Commission’s waiver request, to which interested Galileo users may wish to respond.  According to the FCC’s public notice:

“The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) submitted a request by the European Commission (EC) for a waiver of the Federal Communications Commission’s licensing requirements to permit non-Federal receive-only earth stations within the United States to operate with signals of the Galileo Radionavigation-Satellite Service (RNSS) system. The FCC’s rules require that receive-only earth stations [receivers] operating with non-U.S. licensed space stations obtain a license. NTIA requests that the FCC issue a public notice seeking comment on the EC’s waiver request, and recommends granting the request.

Comments may be filed electronically using the Internet by accessing the ECFS: http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/.”

Options for filing comments by post and for people with disabilities are detailed in the notice.

All comments must be filed by 21 February 2017.

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