In the short term, not vertically integrating is cheaper satellite operators, but longer term that lack of vertical integration could lead to "their value proposition evaporating," with value of video eroding and commoditization of data cutting the value of point-to-point, said Northern Sky Research analyst Blaine Curcio in an NSR blog post Thursday. NSR said fixed satellite service traditionally enjoyed fat EBITDA margins and strong profit margins, but that will bifurcate, with operators leasing only capacity keeping those traditional margins but being more at risk of commoditization long term. Those that vertically integrate, adding non-geostationary orbit assets and otherwise trying different business models, will see those margins fall but also could have much more resilient businesses should prices for raw opacity continue to drop, it said.

Aireon and Canadian civil air navigation system operator Nav Canada ran one of two planned validation test flights of a satellite-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system, Aireon said in a news release Wednesday. Along with that March flight, Aireon said it also did validation flights in March with Polaris Flight Systems and the Federal Aviation Administration (see 1704260047). Aireon said it expects its satellite-based ADS-B system to be operational in 2018, after the completion of the Iridium Next constellation.

More credit for broader coverage and limited package bids would help improve the Connect America Fund Phase II bidding process, ViaSat said in an FCC docket 10-90 ex parte filing posted Wednesday. Calling the current CAF II bidding structure "an easy but flawed design," ViaSat said giving each bid a quality score, using FCC-determined performance and latency tiers, would allow for a trade-off between higher quality in some areas vs. more census block groups covered. It said its proposal would still prioritize low-latency, high-tier service but makes low marginal bids for census blog groups safer, thus expanding the number of locations served. The filing recapped a meeting involving ViaSat Associate General Counsel-Regulatory Affairs Chris Murphy, Auctionomics Chairman Paul Milgrom and outside counsel John Janka of Latham & Watkins with FCC staff including Wireline Bureau Chief of Staff Kirk Burgee and International Bureau Satellite Division Deputy Chief Kerry Murray.

Intelsat wants extra life for its NSS-7 and Intelsat 905 satellites. In a pair of FCC International Bureau authorization modification applications (see here and here) filed Tuesday, it asked for extensions of the license terms. The license term for NSS-7, launched in 2002, expired in April, but its expected end of service life is estimated to be in 2023, the company said, asking for a license term extension through July 31, 2023. The license term for Intelsat 905, which started service in 2002, is to expire July 18, and the expected end of service life was most recently estimated to be late 2019 if there were no inclined orbit operation, the company said. It said it plans an inclined orbit operation, which would give it five more years, and asked for a license term extension through Nov. 30, 2024.

The first set of Iridium's Next satellites were integrated into the company's first-generation constellation to be used for purposes including broadband, it said in a news release Tuesday: There have been three individual slot swaps and two dual slot swaps of Next satellites replacing first-gen satellites, with two Next satellites still drifting to their assigned orbital planes. The company said the second payload of 10 Next satellites is scheduled to launch June 29 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with 75 satellites to be launched in eight launches by the time the constellation is complete in mid-2018.

An estimated 2,356 satellites are expected to launch over the next decade, with satellite manufacturing and launch markets to generate $258 billion in revenues from them, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Monday. NSR said there's an increased focus on new technologies and operations -- such as mass production and in-orbit servicing -- for satellites. Capacity issues and the decline in data pricing helped drive down geostationary orbit orders in 2016, with that expected to continue during this year, and the firm said there will be "a rebalancing of the market," with more emphasis on GSO/non-geostationary orbit combinations.

The application process for space and ground component authorizations for new satellite systems should be streamlined into a unified authorization system with a five-year milestone for placing the components for that network into operation, Hughes Network Systems CEO Pradman Kaul told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 16-124. Current rules only allow individually licensed earth station authorizations to be obtained a year before service commences, and that created a two-step process, different from how it licenses terrestrial wireless operations. Hughes said it's important that geostationary and non-geostationary satellites have co-primary status in the 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands, in a separate filing in docket 16-408, and argued for the spectrum frontiers proceeding being technology neutral "to ensure equitable competition among platforms." Hughes said that doesn't mean spectrum should be apportioned equally among technologies, but that platforms should have adequate access so they can compete with other platforms in different market segments.

Dish Network and plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class-action suit against the company are at odds over how to handle claims. In a post-trial procedures motion (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, Dish said it wants to be able to challenge each claim post-trial. Dish said its proposed post-trial procedures -- each ostensible class member filing a claim form, with jury trials for each one where the parties disagree and the court finds material issues of fact -- "offer a fair, reasonable and practical approach." Plaintiff Thomas Krakauer and the others in a separate motion (in Pacer) Wednesday said Dish's suggested claims process is unduly burdensome in that it proposes adversarial proceeds in contests of payments that, in most cases, would likely amount to a few hundred dollars. "Why Dish wants these procedures is ... clear: it wants the money back. Dish should not get the money back," the plaintiffs said, saying the court should use the class member identification methods similar to what it used at the class notice stage. And it proposed any unclaimed funds after distribution not go to Dish, since the jury found it liable for the 51,119 TCPA violations alleged in the trial, but be directed as escheat to the government, which would determine recipients after distribution. 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).

Aireon and the Federal Aviation Administration collaborated on a test flight of a satellite-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast system, using an FAA aircraft with three Aireon payloads receiving ADS-B data, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The test flight March 30 was used to validate Aireon capabilities, it said. It also said the FAA will compare Aireon space-based ADS-B data to existing ADS-B ground station data. Aireon said it expects its satellite-based ADS-B system to be operational in 2018, after the completion of the Iridium Next constellation (see 1602250048).

Satellite operators took their proposal for dividing the 47 GHz and 50 GHz bands into sub-bands (see 1704130062) to meetings with FCC staffers, according to an ex parte filing Wednesday in docket 14-177. The operators said they told FCC staff the four sub-bands approach "strikes a fair and spectrally efficient balance" for fixed satellite service and upper microwave flexible use service sharing. The filing recapped a meeting involving International and Wireless bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staffers with satellite officials including EchoStar Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner, EchoStar Senior Principal Engineer-Regulatory Affairs Brennan Price, Inmarsat Director-Regulatory Giselle Creeser and Intelsat Associate General Counsel Susan Crandall.