Assurances that Ligado is providing the FCC about being open to tighter out-of-band emission limits (see 1611030049) don't change that the company's proposed terrestrial operations would generate excessive out of band emissions that would interfere with Indium's operations in adjacent spectrum, Iridium said in a filing Wednesday in docket 12-340. It said Ligado's technical response to Iridium cherry-picks issues from non-similar FCC proceedings and it said its own assumptions line up with the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee final report issued in 2013, in which Ligado was a major participant. Iridium also said Ligado's legal arguments fall short and that the company is ignoring Section 25.255 of rules, which puts on Ligado an obligation to prevent harmful interference. Ligado didn't comment.

Due to potential problems stemming from a Sirius XM Telephone Consumer Protection Act settlement website, the deadline for cash TCPA claims was extended from Nov. 26 to Dec. 12 and a fourth round of 5 million email notices to class members was sent out about that extension, counsel for the satellite radio company and for the class-action suit plaintiffs said in a joint memorandum (in Pacer) Tuesday. In the joint filing in U.S. District Court in Newport News, Virginia, the lawyers said the problems revolved around an incorrect filing deadline date on a settlement claims sites that, for the five-plus days it was wrong, could have dissuaded class members from filing a cash claim for part of the $35 million SiriusXM settlement regarding the company's alleged TCPA violations (see 1606080019). The company laid out its corrective steps, saying it's visited conductor sites with an expert to confirm the changes made by those vendors to separate autodialed systems from the manual dialing systems used for dialing mobile phones. A fairness hearing on the settlement is scheduled for Tuesday.

The U.S. hopes to incorporate more commercial satellite capabilities into its national defense architecture, but changes first need to made in federal procurement rules to allow longer-term contracts, said Robert Tarleton, director-Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate, Air Force Space Command, at a satellite industry panel Tuesday. Tarleton said the Air Force is looking at issuing a Pathfinder that would let it buy transponder space on commercial satellites before launch, letting the agency be part of the design of the satellite architecture. Pathfinder is a DOD business model that lets the agency commit to using commercial satellite transponders for multiple years instead of shorter-term operations and maintenance leases. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is considering experimenting with an acquisition model where it would put out unclassified orders for imagery of specific areas or incidents -- such as troop placements in foreign countries -- and earth imaging companies could compete to provide the pixels, data and/or analysis, rather than its traditional approach of long-term acquisition contracts, said NGA Director-Source Strategies Chirag Parikh. He also said with capabilities from earth imaging satellite operators like DigitalGlobe and Planet Labs, imagery acquisition is no longer a challenge but data processing and analysis are, with the U.S. considering outsourcing more routine analysis work to commercial operators.

Globalstar continues to pitch suggested rules that would govern its revised broadband terrestrial low-power service plans. In an ex parte filing Monday in FCC docket 13-213, the company recapped a phone call between General Counsel Barbee Ponder and International Bureau Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque in which Ponder talked about the revised proposal rules and its changes to provisions in the NPRM. The company also urged the agency to adopt the revised rules, which it submitted earlier this month (see 1612080025).

Telemarketer Infinity Sales Group and DOJ and FTC are at odds over whether an Infinity executive's declaration can be part of the record in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuit against Dish Network. In an opposition (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois, the government said Infinity can't and shouldn't be allowed to file documents in a case in which it's not a party. The agencies said Infinity Senior Vice President-Sales Josh Slater was subpoenaed by Dish in October and an Infinity attorney on Thursday filed a notice of appearance that included a Slater declaration in which he gave information he didn't offer during trial testimony. Since Infinity isn't a party and hasn't intervened, its lawyers "cannot simply appear in the case and start making filings," DOJ and FTC said. Even if Infinity had moved to intervene, the agencies said, that would have been untimely because it knew for years that its conduct as a sales agent could be at issue during the Dish trial, but "did nothing about it until more than a month after the actual parties to the case rested after a five-week trial." In its motion (in Pacer), Infinity said that during Slater's cross-examination, the government ignored his testimony that the government-sought injunction would put Infinity out of business and focused on "a surprise smear campaign against Infinity's reputation" about the company's prior relationship with a person who was subject of unrelated, non-TCPA criminal actions. The government used documents never produced to Infinity or Dish, leaving Infinity unable to respond, it said, seeking leave to file Slater's declaration.

The FCC International Bureau signed off on SES' launch of its SES-11 satellite and subsequent operations in the Ku-band. In an approval Wednesday, the bureau said the company sought rule waivers for the satellite -- which will operate at 104.95 degrees west -- to operate in the Ka-band in 18.3-19.3 GHz and 19.7-20.2 GHz for downlinks and 28.35-29.1 GHz and 29.25-30 GHz for uplinks, but it would address those waivers in connection with any future request for operating authority in the Ka-band frequencies, which can be used for broadband. The bureau in a letter to U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom said the satellite is expected to launch this year.

Pointing to problems its 33e satellite had with its main thruster, Intelsat is asking for more time for the satellite's in-orbit testing and drift. In an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday, Intelsat requested a 30-day extension to its special temporary authority for the testing at 59.55 degrees east and the subsequent drift to 60 degrees east. The satellite was launched Aug. 24.

Another GPS equipment maker now has no objections to Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service. In an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 11-109 signed by Topcon Positioning Systems Chief Strategy Officer Ivan Di Federico and Ligado CEO Doug Smith, Topcon said it now supports the FCC granting Ligado's license modifications because the two companies have an agreement that would involve coordination before Ligado's network deployment and mitigation efforts. The Topcon agreement follows similar agreements between Ligado and GPS firms Deere, Trimble, Garmin and NovAtel (see 1602040015 and 1606280067).

Spire plans to launch roughly 25 automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) satellites next year and another 50 in 2018 as it plans to start a satellite-based global aircraft tracking service, Spire AirSafe, the company announced Monday. Spire said the system for tracking ADS-B equipped aircraft will be in operation before the U.S. domestic ADS-B mandate in 2020. Rival Aireon also said it hopes to have its ADS-B constellation deployed by 2018 (see 1602250048).

The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017 conference report adopted by the House last week and expected to be voted on this week by the Senate includes language directing the FCC to protect the Defense Department's GPS network from terrestrial commercial operations in the L-band. A lawyer with satellite and spectrum clients told us the language cements the status quo of the FCC as the chief spectrum regulator. The FCC didn't comment Monday. Section 1698 of the bill, regarding interference to DOD's GPS system, requires that the FCC not allow commercial terrestrial operations in the 1525-1559 MHz or 1626.5-1660.5 MHz bands until at least 90 days after it "resolves concerns of widespread harmful interference by such operations ... to [DOD] GPS devices." The section also directs the agency, if it makes a decision to allow terrestrial operations in the band, to notify the House committees on Commerce and on Armed Services and the Senate committees on Commerce and on Armed Services. That notification is to include an explanation of how various concerns have been resolved. The bill also requires the defense secretary to assess quarterly the ability of DOD GPS devices to receive GPS satellite signals without widespread harmful interference and to determine if commercial communications systems are interfering or will interfere. Any such interference is to be reported to Congress, the bill said, with the notification to include a list of the devices at risk, the source of the interference, descriptions of the manner of the interference and the magnitude of its harm. The interference report also is required to spell out the duration of the interference or expected interference, including the conditions and circumstances of its occurrence; how that interference would or could affect national security; and DOD plans to address it. The reports are required for two years after the bill is enacted or until the defense secretary determines there's no widespread harmful interference from commercial services. The GPS Innovation Alliance didn't comment. Those provisions came from the House version of the bill, as the Senate version had no similar language, according to the joint explanatory statement of the Conference Committee. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture Monday on the conference report. CTIA challenged some aspects of the House version of NDAA that would have seen the DOD supersede FCC oversight of spectrum (see 1605130054), the lawyer said. CTIA didn't comment. The lawyer also said the Senate likely will vote on the bill Tuesday.