Iridium's current system and forthcoming Next constellation face much higher out-of-band-emissions (OOBE) than they can tolerate from Ligado's planned LTE deployment, the first company said in a filing Friday in FCC docket 11-109. Iridium said the job of dealing with interference to mobile satellite service operators falls on the ancillary terrestrial component provider -- a policy that "makes sense as the ATC provider is seeking a deviation from the original allocation (from satellite to terrestrial) and reaping the corresponding financial windfall." The company also said that beyond Ligado's plans for using 1627.5-1637.5 MHz for commercial mobile radio service and the interference threat it raises, it had taken no position on the remaining spectrum Ligado wants to employ. In an accompanying, redacted technical analysis in the filing, Iridium said Ligado user terminals would create interference for Iridium operations in the1617.775-1626.5 MHz band, but its user terminals at 1646.5-1656.5 MHz don't raise worries. Iridium said the Ligado concerns are that Ligado OOBE would inhibit Iridium communications and that the wider the Ligado user terminal deployment the greater the risk of one operating near an Iridium terminal. It also said the OOBE mask Ligado proposed to protect GPS receivers wouldn't sufficiently protect immediately adjacent Iridium receivers. Iridium said its user terminal interference concerns arose from signal propagation modeling, and one Ligado user terminal at various line-of-sight distances would result in emission levels close to 50 dB higher than the Iridium receiver noise floor, and still produce excessive interference as far away as a kilometer. Iridium repeatedly voiced concerns about interference from Ligado's proposed use of the 16275-1637.5 MHz band (see 1606220041 and 1607070010). Ligado didn't comment.

ViaSat and Finnair signed a deal for installation of an in-flight connectivity network on the air carrier's Airbus A320 short-haul fleet flying in Europe, with the equipment installation to be done by June 2018, ViaSat said in a news release Thursday. ViaSat said it partnered with Eutelsat to provide Europe-wide coverage of satellite-based broadband. It also said separately that its joint offering with Eutelsat is in customer trial stage with El Al Israel Airlines, with full retail service expected to begin before year's end.

Herring Networks and AT&T disagree on the scope of discovery that should be done for Herring's lawsuit against the telco on carriage on U-verse (see 1603110064), they said in a joint report Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It said Herring seeks -- and likely will go into further discovery regarding -- AT&T's plans for its U-verse platform; its plans, models, and due diligence on the takeover of DirecTV and shift of its TV platform from U-verse to DirecTV; AT&T's efforts to get the support of Herring and other independent programmers for regulatory approval of the DirecTV acquisition; the telco's ongoing transfer of U-verse subscribers to the satellite company; and communications between the two sides over their agreement Herring would get carriage on DirecTV. Herring said its deposition list includes AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. AT&T contends such discovery is broad and "should be tailored and narrowed" to the telco's representations made on the future of U-verse while negotiating its 2014 carriage agreement with Herring, the accuracy of those representations, whether the carrier tried to cut U-verse's subscriber base after buying DirecTV, and Herring's activities in support of the acquisition and whether there was any DirecTV carriage agreement in connection with those activities, according to the joint report. It said the sides disagree on the overall calendar for the suit, with Herring wanting discovery to have a cutoff of roughly mid February and a trial date within a year, and with AT&T characterizing Herring's discovery requests as "overwhelming" and proposing discovery cutoff of roughly mid-May and trial date sometime after its suggested dispositive motion deadline of mid-February 2018.

One World Sports (OWS) no longer is part of Dish Network's lineup after the two failed to negotiate renewal of their carriage agreement, they said in statements. OWS said it's no longer available on Dish and its Sling platform as of Tuesday because Dish insisted on most-favored-nation provisions "that were imbalanced relative to the network's carriage." OWS said it had been seeking carriage in a domestic sports package and in HD format rather than continuing to be packaged in an ethnic channel and in SD, and said Dish declined an extension. Dish said it "constantly evaluates the content we carry and we work to provide channels that our customers demand [and] as a result, channels are sometimes removed to address a combination of customer interests and business objectives.”

The SES-10 satellite scheduled to launch in Q4 will be the first to go up on a reused SpaceX rocket booster, SES said in a news release Tuesday. SES will orbit at 67 degrees west and be part of the Simon Bolivar 2 satellite network, replacing capacity currently provided by SES’s AMC-3 and AMC-4 satellites at that location and bringing additional direct-to-home broadcasting, enterprise and mobility capacity to Latin America, the company said. "We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management,” SES Chief Technology Officer Martin Halliwell said.

The February order from the National Labor Relations Board that satellite TV installer Alternative Entertainment (AE) violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) came from "a reasonable construction" of the law, the AFL-CIO said in an amicus brief (in Pacer) Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. NLRB is seeking a court judgment enforcing its order and denying AE's petition for review. An AE arbitration agreement requires workers to forego substantive rights such as the right to take concerted action, the union said, and the NLRB order doesn't prevent AE employees from individually and voluntarily invoking arbitration. The original complaint said AE required all employment-related disputes be settled through individual arbitration, and the company fired an employee for discussing compensation and other information with co-workers. AE has backing from the Chamber of Commerce, which in its amicus brief (in Pacer) in June argued that numerous appellate and U.S. District courts have said the NLRB's argument the NLRA prohibits workplace agreements to arbitrate disputes on an individual basis is irreconcilable with the Federal Arbitration Act.

With Boeing and OneWeb planning non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite constellations at roughly 1,200 km nominal altitudes, both can coexist with slight adjustments upward or downward, Boeing officials told FCC International Bureau staff, in an ex parte filing Friday in the proceeding. That would require both Boeing and OneWeb take part in "station keeping" measures to control the mean parameters of their respective orbits, and that issue should be explored more fully in an anticipated NPRM on sharing between NGSO fixed satellite service systems, Boeing said. FCC staffers at the meeting included Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque, and the Boeing group included Director-Frequency Management Audrey Allison.

Chairman Tom Wheeler is defending the Globalstar order on circulation from congressional red flags raised about how its LTE network might interfere with assisted listening devices like Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. Identical letters (here and here) from Wheeler to David McKinley, R-W.Va., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., were posted Friday in docket 13-213. "I share your interest in ensuring that individuals with hearing loss are not negatively impacted by this proceeding," Wheeler said, saying the draft order on circulation carries conditions safeguarding protection of Bluetooth and other spectrum uses from Globalstar's terrestrial Wi-Fi network and that it "reaffirms the Commission's commitment" to monitoring for impacts on other spectrum users "and to take action, if necessary."

Garmin broke ground on a $200 million add-on facility at its Olathe, Kansas, campus, part of a two-phase plan to position the company for future growth. The first phase includes a 720,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in Olathe focused on the company’s aviation unit, Garmin said in a Friday announcement. The second phase will include renovation of Garmin’s warehouse and manufacturing space into an R&D facility, it said.

Intelsat 33e, the second satellite in Intelsat's EpicNG high-throughput constellation, and Intelsat 36, launched Wednesday from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, the company said on its website. Intelsat 33e will be at 60 degrees east and bring C- and Ku-band broadband capacity to parts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the company said. Intelsat 36 will collocate with Intelsat 20 at 68.5 degrees east and focus on video content distribution in Africa and the Indian Ocean region, including supporting the South African direct-to-home MultiChoice platform, the company said.