Growing demand for in-flight connectivity could affect how both airlines and satellite operators view obsolescence, industry insiders said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event Thursday. Moves to wider channels and increased interest in the V- and Q-band mean obsolescence for installed in-flight connectivity systems will come sooner from changing technology than from problems with parts, said Bill Milroy, chief technology officer at antenna maker ThinKom. ViaSat Vice President-Space and Satellite Broadband Richard VanderMeulen said satellite operators are trying to provide LTE-like service today and expect to have to provide 5G-level service in the near future, and airlines ultimately will have to decide whether to prioritize the customer experience or eking out extra life of aircraft. As in-flight connectivity offerings follow the same 4G-to-5G trend of higher speed and capacity, "we're going to have to change our expectations about obsolescence," said Inmarsat Vice President-Enterprise Tim Johnson. SmartSky Networks Vice President-Digital Aviation Bruce Holmes said that beyond in-flight connectivity, an increased number of worldwide broadband networks will lead to "the Holy Grail of air space management" -- pre-computed flight plans avoiding any conflicts of flight paths and maximizing fuel and time efficiency. VanderMeulen said growth of those global networks could also lead to the point where airline passengers have choices of multiple data providers on a flight. He said the Department of Homeland Security laptop ban will have minimal effect on in-flight connectivity demand, since phones are the leading consumers of data on flights. Johnson expects carriers disproportionately affected by such a ban would find work-around for high-value customers, like providing tablets. Asked about typical per-customer connection speeds on a flight, operators largely demurred, saying the focus was on optimized service. Milroy said ThinKom often sees spectral efficiency that can work out to 250 Mbps per aircraft. While for many operators that averages out to 150-200 Kbps per passenger, "of course that number is going up and up," he said. Euroconsult earlier this month predicted more than 17,000 commercial aircraft will offer in-flight connectivity by 2021, up from 6,500 in 2016 and that as of the start of the year, more than 80 airlines installed or committed to in-flight connectivity.

Each month that the FCC takes in deciding on Ligado's pending petitions for its proposed terrestrial low-power broadband service leads to $100 million to $2 billion lost in consumer value, former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said in an economic analysis partially underwritten by the company. The analysis, submitted by Ligado and to be posted in docket 11-109, said the public benefits of the twin Ligado petitions' approval would be clarification and enhancement of property rights in spectrum, help in resolving interference disputes, demonstration of "continued American leadership in spectrum policy," and other benefits: There are "few if any" public objections to the plan, and benefits exceed the costs, it said.

The license term for Intelsat's Galaxy 3C satellite expires in September, but its expected end of service life is early 2023 if there's no inclined orbit operation, or possibly sometime in 2027 via inclined orbit operation, the company said in an FCC International Bureau authorization modification application filed Tuesday. Intelsat asked for an extension of Galaxy 3C's license term through June 30, 2026.

EchoStar 3 would be more productive at 86.5 degrees west, providing service to the Colombian, maritime and foreign markets, EchoStar said in an FCC International Bureau license modification request filed Monday. Along with relocating the satellite, currently an in-orbit spare, from 61.8 degrees west, the company wants to make earth stations in South Dakota and Arizona as the points of communication for telemetry, tracking and control. It plans to seek a license extension for the satellite beyond its current term, which expires in 2018.

Dish Network knew telemarketer Satellite Systems Network committed Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations for years but didn't care if SSN complied, said U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles of Greensboro, North Carolina, in an order (in Pacer) Monday trebling previously awarded jury damages of $400 per call in the TCPA class-action complaint against Dish. Eagles said Dish arguments it told SSN to scrub its phone lists of Do Not Call Registry numbers "were empty words" since it did nothing when it knew SSN hadn't removed numbers. The court said treble damages -- $1,200 per call for more than 50,000 telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry -- were appropriate "because of the need to deter Dish from future violations." Dish in a statement said it "respectfully disagree[s]" with the opinion and is evaluating legal options. It said it has "long taken its compliance with telemarketing laws seriously, has and will continue to maintain rigorous telemarketing compliance policies and procedures, and has topped multiple independent customer service surveys along the way." Dish and the class-action plaintiffs have been at odds over disbursement of the award (see 1704270008), with a hearing scheduled for June 7 on post-trial procedures.

The U.S. has "an authorization gap" for new outer space activities like in-orbit satellite servicing and asteroid mining, which creates uncertainty for industry, Matthew Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law co-director-Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program, told the Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee Tuesday. Testimony involved the possible regulatory regimes of such new activities, and the possible need to revisit the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. OST Article VI, which makes nations responsible for oversight of space activities that originate from individual countries, "has been an issue," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Numerous questions involved U.S. obligations under Article VI. Satellite lawyer Jim Dunstan of Mobius Legal Group said nothing is to be gained by reopening the treaty regime, which would let unfriendly nations layer on regulatory burdens. Schaefer said fear of the difficulties of OST compliance is unwarranted, since the treaty's obligations are minimally burdensome, but the U.S. not respecting its OST obligations leads to such potential consequences as foreign governments taking away markets and customers from U.S. space businesses. Space lawyer Laura Montgomery of Ground Based Space Matters said the U.S. isn't obligated to regulate all new outer space activities, and it's a misconception Article VI "makes the United States regulate either any particular activity or all activities of U.S. citizens in outer space." She said Congress should prohibit any regulatory agency from denying a U.S. entity from operating based on Article VI considerations. Schaefer said if the U.S. starts legislating in the area of Article VI, some countries will impose the U.S. interpretation for matters of their own national interest, and it would lead to more nations inspired to adopt commercially friendly interpretations. He recommended Congress act to limit the national security barrier to new space activities as much as possible. Many said the U.S. has an effective existing regulatory framework to deal with space debris from such new space industries, but a consolidation and harmonization of the debris mitigation rules required by different agencies would be useful. Since property rights are a good incentive to investment, the U.S.needs to figure out a way to recognize property rights extraterrestrially, and Article II allows that, Montgomery said. Dunstan disagreed, saying OST doesn't allow the U.S. to recognize private property rights. Schaefer said it might be better to proceed on a case-by-case basis for property right disagreements, leaving the discretion in the executive branch rather than doing a rewrite of Article II.

New advances in very-small aperture terminal technology, the rise of low earth orbit and medium earth orbit satellites and reduced cost of bandwidth are lowering the barriers to rural connectivity, said Speedcast Vice President-Global Cellular Services Stephane Palomba Tuesday at CommunicAsia, the company said in a news release. He said remote-area connectivity is going to be a major means of differentiation among telcos, and that satellite connectivity has become so reliable, it's driving the shift to rural connectivity.

Dish Network and the plaintiff in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action complaint against it continue to clash (see 1705110010) over post-trial procedures. Dish Network in a reply (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, said only its proposal has a legally acceptable route for determining which ostensible class members were phone subscribers or receivers of calls, and described the plaintiff's rival proposal as lacking legal support and "reckless" since it would distribute judgment proceeds "without a modicum of reasonable safeguards." Dish said it's "a transparent attempt to artificially inflate the aggregate dollar amount of a judgment and class counsel's related fewer award" without regard to whether the award check beneficiaries should actually receive part of the judgment. Plaintiff Thomas Krakauer and the others in their reply (in Pacer) Friday said Dish "remains in denial" that the court certified the case as a class action and that a jury found Dish violated TCPA more than 51,000 times. The plaintiffs' post-trial procedure proposal would ensure a maximum number of class members are compensated, while Dish's "is designed to do exactly the opposite," Krakauer and the others said. A 10-person jury in January awarded class members $400 per TCPA violation, and plaintiffs are seeking a court enhancement to increase the award to $1,200 per violation (see 1702140010).

ViaSat launched an in-flight connectivity service plan for large-cabin business jet users, plus a plan to migrate to the new broadband service. In a news release Monday, it said the new service -- based on its ViaSat-2 satellite system -- offers download speeds of up to 4 Mbps, double its current service plan. It said its Global Aero Terminal 5510 is expected to be certified in the second half of the year.

Two-thirds of commercial passenger aircraft will have in-flight connectivity by the end of 2026, generating more than $32 billion in satellite communications revenue over the next decade, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Monday. It said quality and quantity of in-flight connectivity likely will take off, with very-small aperture terminal connectivity being installed on a third of commercial passenger aircraft by the end of 2019. NSR said more than half of the addressable commercial passenger aircraft market will have in-flight connectivity through fixed satellite service or high-throughput satellites by 2021. The company said any ban on personal electronic device use on flights could be a stumbling block, as the mid- long-term effect on such a potentially expanding ban is unclear.