ABS Global wants to get permission for U.S. market access for its C- and Ku-band ABS-3A satellite. In an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday, the Bermuda-based satellite operator said it wants to provide fixed satellite services including TV distribution, IP trunking, cellular backhaul and maritime services from ABS-3A's 3 degrees west orbit. ABS-3A has been operational since September 2015 and operates in the 3700-4200 MHz, 5925-6426 MHz, 10950-11200 MHz and 14000-14250 MHz bands, the company said.
The FTC's push for sanctions against DirecTV under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as part of a fight over discovery in the agency's Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act suit against the company (see 1610280027) "is transparently tactical -- designed improperly to exclude critical proof in the case ... and not to cure any alleged prejudice to the FTC," the satellite operator said in an opposition (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The FTC long has known DirecTV can't preserve any one iteration of its website, let alone the tens of thousands of iterations over time, and previously agreed discovery could be met by screenshots, the historical site source code and collateral advertising assets, DirecTV said, adding it produced all those documents. Instead, the company said, the FTC motion is trying to exclude a consumer survey of thousands of DirecTV customers that undermines the case, and that motion isn't the appropriate vehicle for challenging the survey's reliability. The company said it also offered to give the FTC access to all web analytics data it had about customer usage of and behavior on DirecTV.com, but the agency did nothing until after the close of discovery and now is "trump[ing] up this disingenuous Motion." Asking the court to deny the motion, DirecTV said if it grants any relief it also should schedule a hearing on the appropriate scope of the relief. The agency didn't comment Thursday.
The first satellites in Iridium's Next constellation are tentatively scheduled for launch Dec. 16, the company announced Thursday. That launch, originally scheduled for September, was postponed by an explosion during a SpaceX preflight ignition test and subsequent investigation (see 1610270015). Iridium said Thursday a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will put up 10 Next satellites in the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval.
The maker of the h.TV set-top box is no longer fully cooperating with its counsel and doesn't plan to seek new representation or to defend itself in the piracy lawsuit brought by Dish Network and broadcasters China Central TV and TVB Holdings (see 1604180064), said HTV International counsel from Ni Wang in a filing (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Ni Wang and the plaintiffs also requested a telephone conference with the court "to determine how the matter should proceed." HTV didn't comment Thursday.
Before approving a motion by counsel at Aran Correa to withdraw from representing defendant Bras Trading, the court should first resolve plaintiff Eutelsat's motion of summary judgment, Eutelsat said in a filing (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Miami. In the motion (in Pacer) to withdraw Tuesday, Aran Correa cited "irreconcilable differences" in case strategies and administration and Bras' "failure to substantially fulfill obligations" to the firm. Eutelsat accused Bras of delaying prosecution, with two motions to stay, and said Aran Correa is the third firm that has withdrawn from representing the company. It also said withdrawal now, months after the briefing of the summary judgment motion, could cause further delay. Eutelsat said if the court grants the withdrawal motion, it should condition it on Bras being required to get new attorneys within 15 days. Bras didn't comment Thursday. Eutelsat is suing the company for allegedly failing to guarantee its subsidiary J C P Melo Telecomunicacoes' payments to Eutelsat for satellite broadband capacity. Bras said Eutelsat fulfilled only some of the services for which it billed (see 1608020014).
Latin American mobile satellite service company Globalsat Group will get access to infrastructure for its low earth orbit network, and satellite operator LeoSat will get access to the Americas market, under an agreement they announced in a news release Wednesday. The two will market a joint high-throughput satellite data network. Globalsat CEO Alberto Palacios will join the LeoSat Customer Technical Advisory Committee, which advises on system configuration, product design and launch of LeoSat’s upcoming satellite constellation.
Iridium is taking over much of the satellite operations and maintenance work done for it by Boeing, it said in a news release Wednesday. It expects to hire most of the Boeing staffers who do operations and maintenance on its satellites starting in January. Iridium said it will go into a separate development services contract with Boeing. Iridium's first launch of its Next satellite constellation approaches and the company plans to start transitioning to that new constellation.
Non-U.S. applicants face a more-burdensome satellite application process than U.S. applicants do, and the solution is to let applicants file ITU coordination requests on a confidential basis before completing their satellite applications, ViaSat said in Monday in a filing in FCC docket 12-267. No satellite operator would have a place in queue without filing a complete satellite application, and both U.S. applicants and non-U.S. ones would be treated the same, the company said. The filing responded to SES' petition for reconsideration of the agency's Part 25 satellite rule changes adopted last year (see 1609200049). There, the FCC said once an applicant is given authority for a given orbital location, any conflicting applications will be dismissed, ViaSat said. So SES is off when it claims a grant of a U.S. license doesn't preclude giving market access to a foreign licensee with ITU priority, ViaSat said. But it said its proposal would alleviate SES' concern U.S. applicants can establish queue priority by filing out the simplified Form 312 "short form," making a coordination request and posting a $500,000 bond but without having to submit a complete satellite application. ViaSat said it wasn't taking a position on SES' request to reconsider the "short-form" mechanism itself. SES didn't comment Tuesday.
Opposition by a class-action litigation plaintiff to DirecTV's motion to compel arbitration doesn't respond to any DirecTV arguments why the arbitration clause in her customer agreement isn't valid, the company said in a memorandum filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Plaintiff Doneyda Perez said she never agreed to arbitrate claims but formed a binding arbitration agreement by using and paying for DirecTV and by signing her equipment lease agreement, the satellite company said. It recounted that the decision in Joaquin v. DirecTV, involving identical claims, said it also was within the scope of the DirecTV arbitration agreement. Perez, who owns an Orange County, California, beauty salon, alleges DirecTV seeks out small-business owners to sell its satellite-TV service for use in their business, designates those accounts as residential, and then later accuses them of pirating signals. Counsel for Perez didn't comment Monday.
Pointing to "a muddy record" that DirecTV and the FTC created, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of San Francisco in an order (in Pacer) Friday gave the two a Tuesday deadline for a jointly prepared chart summarizing the documents sought to be sealed and their positions. In his order, Haywood said with it wasn't clear who wanted what briefs and exhibits sealed in the agency's motion for partial summary judgment, due to the piles of administrative motions and subsequent corrections and oppositions. The commission is suing the company over advertising practices (see 1503110042).