The FTC is accusing DirecTV of failure to preserve evidence, but the direct broadcast satellite company says the FTC's motion for sanctions under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should be denied since it did produce or make available the materials in question, said a discovery letter brief (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The FTC said the lost evidence is an interactive website used in consumer surveys, almost all the thousands of consumer comparative tests DirecTV undoubtedly did on its website and past website analytics data. Thus the court should exclude any consumer survey evidence and analyses and any consumer comparative test evidence and DirecTV should be enjoined from relying on some analytics data. According to DirecTV, it "took sufficiently reasonable steps" to preserve and produce the relevant material, and repeatedly offered to make all web analytics data available, and in talking repeatedly with the FTC over the past six years about the scope of what could reasonably be preserved, the agency didn't object and sometimes endorsed the company's actions. "The only explanation for the motion [for sanctions] made in the middle of expert discovery it that it is a strategic ply to exclude expert work fundamental to the case rather than to seek redress for any real discovery wrong," said DirecTV. The agency is suing DirecTV under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act for allegedly not properly communicating early cancellation fee terms to subscribers (see 1503110042).

One frequency band isn't the same as a marketplace, and having fewer than three licensees in a band doesn't reflect some lack of market competition needing remedy, the FCC said, lifting its "three-license presumption" in its non-geostationary orbit-like (NGSO) satellite processing round procedures in an order on reconsideration to be published Monday in the Federal Register after approval Aug. 16. The three-license presumption requires the agency withhold spectrum for use in a subsequent processing round if two or fewer qualified applicants apply in the initial processing round. In the order, the FCC also clarified the procedures for redistribution of spectrum among other NGSO-like systems after authorization of one has been canceled, saying it will then issue a public notice or order and propose to modify the remaining grants to redistribute the spectrum among remaining system operators that have asked to use the spectrum. The FCC said the returned spectrum "will generally be redistributed equally" among the other operators that requested it. The commission also clarified that it will continue its "three-strikes" rule -- which limits additional satellite applications if a licensee misses three milestones in any three-year period -- and that while it revised its milestone rules last year (see 1512170036), it kept one milestone requirement and any authorizations surrendered prior to fulfilling that milestone will continue to be subject to the "three-strikes" rule. The FCC also said it disagreed with a Hughes petition arguing that the limit on pending applications and licensed-but-unlaunched satellites wasn't needed for orbital locations not covering the U.S. and against the bond requirement for applicants for satellites to operate at non-U.S. orbital locations, with the agency opting to keep them as safeguards against speculation. It also clarified that NGSO-like licensees getting spectrum rights from other NGSO-like licensees are allowed to build a single, integrated NGSO-like system under one milestone schedule and that non-U.S. satellite operators can notify the agency of a change in satellite ownership after the fact. The rules changes will be effective 30 days after publication, said the order.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan gave additional time for settlement talks in a class-action lawsuit against Dish Network and background check company Sterling Infosystems. In an order (in Pacer) Wednesday, Schofield signed off on a stipulation by the companies and the plaintiffs saying compilation of a settlement class list took longer than expected and Sterling needs authorization to provide the available class member address information to the settlement administrator. The motion deadline for final settlement approval is now Jan. 23, instead of Jan. 9, and the final approval hearing is to be Jan. 31, instead of Jan. 17. The 2012 suit alleges Dish and Sterling violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act in using credit reports to do background checks on prospective employees or subcontractors (see 1512160017).

The Intelsat 33e satellite is expected to be in service in early 2017, CEO Stephen Spengler said during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. It and Intelsat 36 satellites were launched in August (see 1608250021), with 33e being the second of the company's high-throughput seven-satellite Epic constellation. The company has three more launches scheduled in 2017: Intelsat 32e, an Epic satellite, in Q1, Intelsat 35e in Q2 and Intelsat 37e in Q4, it said in a news release. Spengler said the company still is being hit with pricing pressures, though network services seem to be stabilizing. For the quarter, Intelsat had revenue of $542.7 million, down 7 percent due to network services declines, but up from Q2 due to revenue from direct-to-home satellites launched earlier this year, Spengler said.

Other than one consumer filing in favor and a filing by EchoStar, there were no comments on its petition for a waiver that would let it import and sell AirTV, an Internet-enabled set-top box that doesn't include an analog tuner. Deadline for comments in docket 16-329 was Wednesday, with replies due Nov. 2 (see 1610120054).

Iridium's Next constellation likely won't be fully deployed until 2018 and the company isn't sure when the inaugural Next launch by SpaceX will take place, said Iridium CEO Matthew Desch during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. That first launch was slated for September, but SpaceX's ongoing investigation of an explosion during a Sept. 1 preflight ignition test remains underway, Desch said. He said SpaceX indicated it expects to resume launches this year, and one of them "will presumably include ours." Desch said Iridium was comfortable with the progress SpaceX is making in its launch investigation. SpaceX has said that, pending the results of its investigation, it expects to resume launches as early as November. It didn't comment Thursday on which missions would go up when. Despite the launch delays and the loss of two satellites earlier this year (see 1607280006), Iridium's existing constellation "is operating well" and has one in-orbit spare, Desch said, saying there haven't been any signs of battery failure. The loss of two satellites caused some small outages, though the company's customer availability statistics are still high, Desch said. The first two Next constellation launches are targeted to plug those two holes, he said. Iridium also had expected to be able to launch its L-band Certus broadband service commercially in mid-2017 (see 1606070018), but "it could be a little later" given the launch delays, Desch said. Meanwhile, Iridium could start deorbiting its legacy satellite constellation as soon as 2017, he said, with that process expected to be complete by 2019. Iridium revenue for the quarter was $112.8 million, up 6 percent year over year, due mostly to government services, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Fitzpatrick said. He said the company still is seeing declines in traditional telephony usage.

As part of its plan to swap its AMC-6 and AMC-3 satellites (see 1610170014), SES filed a notification Tuesday with the FCC International Bureau that AMC-3's license should be modified to reflect it's moving from 67 degrees west to 72 degrees west. AMC-3 will operate within the technical parameters licensed and coordinated for AMC-6, currently at 72 degrees west, and the move will start no sooner than 30 days after the notification's filing, said the satellite company.

Silkwave Africa wants to buy the AfriStar-1 satellite from satellite operator Yazmi and also take over geostationary satellite authorization for AfriStar-2, said an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday by Yazmi. The satellite provides broadcast satellite services over Africa and the Middle East and parts of Asia and Europe, and prospective owner Silkwave intends to continue and expand operations of the AfriStar satellite system. Silkwave is owned by CEO Chau-Chi Wong of Hong Kong, who's the sole member of Chi Capital, a Cayman Islands company, said Yazmi. Yazmi bought the satellites in 2010 as part of original owner WorldSpace's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it said, saying it and Silkwave in September signed an asset purchase agreement for the AfriStar-1 satellite and related regulatory authorizations.

With the FCC having approved Planet Labs' low earth orbit constellation of up to 200 satellites, ViaSat is asking for approval to operate an S-band earth station to provide telemetry, tracking and control for them. In an International Bureau filing Monday, ViaSat said the uplink, employing a 5.4-meter dish, would be outside of Pendergrass, Georgia, the company's second choice of location, and an earlier application for an uplink in Duluth, Georgia, was withdrawn after it became clear that site, closer to Atlanta, would cause interference to Atlanta-area 2 GHz TV broadcast auxiliary service operations.

The FCC International Bureau is proposing updates to Part 2 and 25 rules specifically to facilitate deployment of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service constellations. An FCC official told us the NPRM put on circulation Friday also seeks comment on technical rules for spectrum sharing. The official said the agency asks for input on its current rule governing in-line events -- when two NGSO systems come within 10 degrees of aligning with each other, necessitating either coordination or splitting of spectrum -- and whether that 10-degree rule should be modified. It also seeks comment on a SpaceX proposal on the FCC's rule requiring an NGSO constellation to be completely launched within six years of license grant, with the company pushing for a lower milestone of 75 percent of the constellation, the official said. The NPRM likely won't be on a future monthly meeting agenda but voted on circulation, the official said.