A lower court was wrong when it denied Dish Network's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Dish subscribers seeking damages for the days in late 2014 and early 2015 when Turner and Fox channels were blacked out during stalled carriage negotiations between the companies, the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a ruling (in Pacer) Tuesday. The plan agreement signed by subscribers includes language indicating Dish can change packages and programming at any time, but the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Missouri, denied Dish's motion, calling the contract illusory. But the 8th Circuit said illusory contracts are unenforceable from inception, while the contracts in Stokes, Felzien v. Dish had been in effect for years when the Turner and Fox service interruptions happened. The judges said they agreed with Dish that it didn't breach the covenant of good faith and fair dealing because the subscription agreement expressly says customers aren't entitled to monetary relief for interruptions due to the loss of Dish access to programming. Saying the plaintiffs' claims for monetary relief fail to state a claim on which relief can be granted, the 8th Circuit remanded the case for further proceedings. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Tuesday. Deciding the case were judges James Loken, Arlen Beam and Lavenski Smith, with Loken writing the opinion.

With the satellite industry increasingly offering broadband speeds and direct-to-home services, it needs enough protected access to greenfield millimeter wave spectrum bands to enable those offerings, the Satellite Industry Association said Tuesday in a filing in FCC docket 14-177. Satellite commenters joined wireless and other interests responding to a spectrum frontiers Further NPRM (see 1610030047). SIA said the FCC needs to ensure satellite systems can locate individually licensed earth stations on a coordinated basis and can deploy user terminals in parts of the upper millimeter wave bands. It said the FCC needs to guarantee V-band satellite systems have enough access to uplink and downlink spectrum for those individually licensed earth stations and end user terminals. The 37.39 GHz, 47 GHz, 50 GHz and 70/80 GHz bands "have substantial existing FSS [fixed satellite service] allocations" and the industry "plans to make intensive use" of that spectrum, SIA said. It backed protection of feeder links in the 24.75-25.25 GHz band and for the FCC to specify that satellite use of that band isn't limited to broadcasting satellite service feeder links. It said rules for upper microwave flexible use (UMFU) in the 24, 47 and 50 GHz bands should, at least, identify aggregate interference to satellites as a possible risk "and commit to addressing it," akin to what it did with 28 GHz. Global VSAT Forum (GVF) said the V-band spectrum needs of broadband satellite systems preclude some of the spectrum sharing ideas in the NPRM for satellite end user terminals in parts of the 47 GHz band. Instead, GVF said, UMFU terminals could operate on an opportunistic basis, having full use of the band when FSS end user operations were small. Inmarsat said current satellite bands opened for UMFU use should keep primary satellite allocations and consideration should be given to opening the band to diverse satellite operations perhaps on a secondary basis if there's no pre-existing satellite allocation. It urged individual examination of the utility of each band for addressing future spectrum needs without first determining technical rules and licensing regimes: "In some cases, the best approach may be to introduce [UMFU service] on a secondary basis, if at all." Boeing, which is pursuing creation of a V-band non-geostationary orbit satellite constellation (see 1606230050), said the FCC should avoid any UMFU spectrum allocation in the 47 and 50 GHz bands and keep UMFU operations to the 28 GHz and 37/39 GHz bands. It urged letting satellite systems operate downlink transmissions in the 37/39 GHz band at ITU power flux density levels, saying the lower limits the FCC adopted are now outdated, given better technology. And it said any UMFU sharing in the 42 GHz band should be done on a shared basis, with satellite end user terminals able to receive signals there on a shared opportunistic basis with UMFU systems.

NTIA is again urging amending the U.S. table of frequency allocations so federal earth stations communicating with commercial satellites get better interference protection. In a filing Friday in docket 13-115, NTIA urged the FCC to move on its 2013 space policy rulemaking that came from a 2006 NTIA petition (see 1305060028), saying doing so would help push some of the principles and goals in the White House's national space policy. It also said its proposal "will further energize competitive domestic industries to participate in global markets." Any co-primary regulatory status of federal earth stations is unlikely to add complexity or delays to licensing commercial stations, NTIA said, saying the agency shouldn't adopt rules that would add to commercial users' burdens or set requirements that would treat federal agencies differently from commercial users. NTIA said it backs the NPRM proposals to enable commercial access to the 420-430 MHz band on a co-primary basis, parts of 2200-2290 MHz band on a secondary basis and the 5650-5925 MHz band on a co-primary basis -- "a necessary and important initial milestone in providing protected spectrum access for commercial launch operations."

Fired worker James DeCommer wasn't engaged in concerted activity when he talked about Alternative Entertainment's (AE) compensation policy changes with his supervisors, and the National Labor Relations Board has no evidence DeCommer spoke with coworkers about the changes, the satellite TV installation company said in a reply brief (in Pacer) Friday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The record in the case lacks any evidence backing the contention other AE workers were worried about or opposed the compensation change, the company said. Asking the court not to enforce the board's February order, AE also said NLRB's decision DeCommer's firing was unlawful was based on a theory not even alleged in the complaint -- that the firing was for discussing the pay change with other workers at times when no management person was around. AE said if it knew about that new theory before the trial, "there was a whole group of additional witnesses who could be interviewed and provide potentially exculpatory testimony." NLRB also never argued that theory before the Administrative Law Judge at trial or in its brief, with the new theory only coming up in the ALJ decision. "This is not full and fair litigation, and [AE] was very definitely prejudiced in its ability to present its defense," AE said. The Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief on behalf of AE, and the AFL-CIO did likewise for the NLRB (see 1608300042). Oral argument is scheduled for Nov. 30. The NLRB didn't comment Monday.

Iridium is asking the FCC not to make public confidential information contained in a confidentiality request the company previously submitted. In a letter posted Friday in docket 11-109, Iridium said the letter it submitted with its technical analysis of how Ligado's proposed LTE service might cause interference to the satellite company's receivers (see 1609020029), asking for confidential treatment of sensitive information in that analysis, also contains information the "disclosure of which would result in substantial competitive harm." Thus the redacted language in that confidentiality request also should be withheld from public disclosure, it said. Ligado has been pushing for Iridium to make public redacted portions of that technical analysis (see 1609270024).

More than 2,000 union workers took a step toward getting their first contract with DirecTV, as the Communications Workers of America reached tentative agreements Thursday with the AT&T unit. If accepted, the agreement would cover 2,100 technicians, warehouse and administrative workers in the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest, CWA said. The workers would be covered by the same wage progression schedules as AT&T members in those regions. The tentative agreement also provides healthcare coverage; disability, savings and pension benefits; a grievance and arbitration process; and coverage under the national transfer plan. The deal must be ratified by Nov. 1 and would take effect Dec. 25, CWA said. AT&T confirmed the deal in a separate news release Thursday.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said he's still talking with Globalstar about its proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service, during a post-commissioner meeting news conference. He said he hasn't made any decisions and has no time frame to decide. The company in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 13-213 recapped a phone call between O'Rielly aide Erin McGrath and Globalstar consultant and ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth in which he pushed for "an expeditious resolution to any outstanding issues in this proceeding." O'Rielly's office has been involved in multiple Globalstar ex parte meetings in recent weeks about its application (see 1609080073, 1609020044 and 1608240063).

Lockheed Martin received a $395 million Air Force contract for producing the ninth and 10th GPS III satellites, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The first eight satellites are under contract in production at Lockheed Martin's GPS III Processing Facility in Colorado, it said, with the first satellite to be delivered to the Air Force later this year. The latest production contract covers both full production and long-lead items, Lockheed Martin said.

Maritime mobility company Telenor Maritime wants permission to operate up to 25 Sea Tel Model 9711 and Sea Tel 6012 earth station onboard vessel (ESV) terminals, it said in an FCC International Bureau ESV blanket license application filed Tuesday. Telenor said the terminals will operate in the Ku-band, with the 9711 terminals also operating in the C-band. In a separate IB filing, Telenor also said it wanted a 60-day special temporary authority to operate ESV terminals on U.S. and foreign-registered vessels in U.S. and international waters. The ESV terminals would connect with the SES-4 and NSS-7 satellites, it said, saying the STA would let it do link performance evaluation and onboard frequency band switch-over capability assessment before the company begins its long-term commercial operations.

Iridium is lobbying the FCC about the big risks it sees of interference from Ligado's planned terrestrial low-power service, while Ligado is asking the agency to make public the supposed basis of those worries. In an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 11-109, Iridium recapped meetings Maureen McLaughlin, vice president-public policy, had with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel on its technical paper submitted this month in which Iridium argued Ligado's LTE deployment plans would cause too-high out-of-band-emissions (OOBE) to its current system and forthcoming Next constellation (see 1609020029). Saying it doesn't oppose Ligado's plans per se, Iridium said minus some interference agreement being worked out with Ligado, the FCC needs to impose on any Ligado approvals conditions that include sufficient interference protections. Those conditions should reduce OOBE emissions from Ligado's mobile terminals into Iridium's use of 1617.775-1626.5 MHz and could include exclusion zones that prohibit use of Ligado user terminals around airport facilities to protect aviation satellite communication services, Iridium said. Ligado, in a filing in the same docket Tuesday, pointed to that technical paper and argued against the redactions, saying any confidentiality interest in the redacted information "is far outweighed by the public interest in subjecting Iridium's claims to critical analysis." Ligado also called it "critical" that it and other parties in the proceeding be able to fully assess the Iridium analysis and underlying data. It said Iridium denied a Ligado request to provide the full analysis and instead told the satellite company to seek it from the FCC, potentially under a protective order. Ligado said that if the agency decided some part of that analysis shouldn't be made public, the commission at the least needs to grant Ligado and other parties access to the full analysis subject to protections. "The FCC has a well-established process for reviewing requests for confidentiality of commercially sensitive information, which Iridium has followed," Iridium emailed us. "We have every confidence in the Commission’s staff’s ability to handle the request. Iridium has no objection to Ligado gaining access to the information through a Protective Order established by the Commission."