Regulatory · FCC
The US source of truth for satellite authorisations.
The International Bureau Filing System is the FCC's electronic docket for satellite space-station and earth-station applications, modifications and assignments. For any cleared instrument whose underlying references a US-authorised licence, IBFS — not our registry — is authoritative. We reconcile nightly and surface divergence as an alert, not a warning.
- Source
- FCC IBFS public docket
- Reconciliation
- Nightly, signed
- Scope
- Space & earth stations · US
- Public docket
- fcc.gov / IBFS
What we track
Every US space-station and earth-station touchpoint.
The FCC's International Bureau issues and administers satellite-related authorisations in the US. We read that docket end-to-end and pin each authoritative record into the Wavestar registry.
- 01
Space-station applications
Initial applications for space-station authorisations — geostationary, non-geostationary, and experimental — with full call-sign, frequency and orbital characteristics indexed against the underlying filing. - 02
Earth-station applications
Blanket earth-station, individually-licensed earth-station, and teleport applications. Gateway and user-terminal deployments tracked per operator, per class of service. - 03
Modifications and waivers
Any modification to an authorised space station or earth station — power, coverage, polarisation, frequency — captured as a new registry event with a supersedes-edge to the prior state. - 04
Assignments and transfers of control
Assignments of authorisations and transfers of control trigger registry updates with the new licensee's did:orbit identifier and the signed FCC consent record. - 05
Milestone monitoring
FCC-imposed milestone deadlines — for example, NGSO constellation build-out milestones — tracked per authorisation. Terminal surfaces approaching milestones to the relevant licensee. - 06
Special Temporary Authority (STA)
STA grants and extensions tracked separately from the underlying authorisation. Cleared instruments referencing STA capacity are clearly labelled as such.
Reconciliation workflow
Pull, diff, sign, anchor.
- 03:00 ETComplete
IBFS public docket ingestion
We pull the full day's IBFS docket activity — applications, grants, comments, consents — along with any late-evening modifications. The pull runs after FCC-docket end-of-day to capture same-day actions. - 03:20 ETComplete
Event normalisation
Docket items normalised into registry-event types (application, grant, modification, assignment, STA, forfeiture, etc.). Each normalised event is tied to the underlying IBFS file number and call sign. - 03:45 ETComplete
Divergence computation
Per-filing comparison against the current registry state. Missing records, stale records and contradictory records all flagged with severity. - 04:00 ETComplete
Signed divergence report
Canonicalised divergence report signed by the registry service, appended to the transparency log, and anchored in the hourly Ethereum and Bitcoin anchors. On-call operations receives the signed summary. - 04:15 ETComplete
Member notifications
Operators whose own authorisations changed overnight receive Terminal and email notifications with the matched IBFS reference and the signed registry update.
Ongoing obligations
The reconciliation job is never 'done'.
Public documents
Reconciliation is a published artefact, not an internal tool.
FCC IBFS reconciliation register
- Daily reconciliation report
Last ninety days of signed reports publicly accessible.
- Reconciliation SLA
Committed overnight reconciliation window, with remediation timelines for misses.
- Schema mapping
Every IBFS field and how it is represented in our registry.
- Enforcement event feed
NALs, forfeitures, consent decrees indexed against authorisation identifiers.
- Milestone tracker
NGSO milestone deadlines tracked per authorisation.
The evergreen pieces
Reconciliation feeds the rulebook.
The rulebook defines what happens when an authoritative record changes mid-contract — suspension, mark-to-market adjustment, recovery. Read the rulebook for the full procedure.