While awaiting a ruling on its application to permanently relocate Intelsat 1R to 50.1 degrees west (see 1602220010), Intelsat is seeking special temporary authority to drift the satellite from its current home at 50 degrees west and to operate it at 50.1 degrees west. In an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday, Intelsat said 1R is being moved after transfer of some of its traffic to the recently launched Intelsat 29e, with the drift expected to start June 1 and to take "a few days."

Dish Network is clashing with the FTC, DOJ and four states over an October hearing on a permanent telemarketing injunction that Dish says "would have grave consequences" for its and its retailers' businesses. The U.S. is misstating Dish's decision to decline supplemental discovery, it said, and Dish won't use documents in 2015 supplemental discovery disclosures, but it's "not barred from presenting, and will present, other evidence" against the injunctive relief, Dish said in opposition (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois. The filing was in response to an FTC and Justice Department motion (in Pacer) filed in March seeking to cancel the Oct. 24 hearing. The mandatory injunction issue was bifurcated from the rest of the trial that ended Feb. 24 of robocall allegations brought by the FTC, California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio (see 0903260144). Dish said in its filing it originally intended to present evidence during the Phase I trial dealing with the permanent injunction, but the court ordered that the scope of discovery would include nearly six years of call records, which would take a couple of years of discovery, so it opted "to decline to engage in that exercise." Dish said it plans in a permanent injunction hearing to introduce testimony and other evidence from witnesses "that will demonstrate the impracticability of the specific terms of the requested injunction, the adverse impact that it would have on Dish's business and the business of its retailers, and its excessive scope." The FTC and DOJ in their motion said that by choosing not to engage in discovery, the satellite company is waiving reliance on any compliance evidence that would postdate March 2010, the last date of call records it produced in discovery. It also said Dish had plenty of time at the four-week trial that ended Feb. 24 to present compliance evidence and "there is nothing new that Dish can offer at the October hearing except oral testimony about information that was turned over during discovery." In a separate response (in Pacer) Friday, the state plaintiffs said they support the U.S. request, citing Dish declining additional discovery and withdrawing its previously offered analysis. The states also asked that the court keep the Oct. 24 date open for other issues that may come up in discovery that Dish is scheduled to produce April 25.

Intelsat's and Harmonic's joint linear 4K ultra-HD demonstration channel, HVN Intelsat UHD, is available in Latin America, the companies said in a news release Monday. The channel already had been broadcast in North America via Galaxy 13, and now is available in Latin America via the Intelsat 14 satellite, they said. The free-to-air linear channel will enable multichannel video programming distributors and cable programmers "operating in Latin America to test their consumers’ appetite for varying forms of high-quality content," said Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat head-media product services.

SES and Rutgers University's School of Engineering started work on content delivery network development meant to show and quantify the effectiveness of SES' CDN overlay in meeting demand for online video distribution, SES said in a news release Monday. The demonstrations will start by using satellite for linear and on-demand over-the-top delivery of content to wireless test beds at Rutgers' Wireless Information Network Lab, with the second stage being a national demo of satellite-based CDN involving multiple universities and test beds, it said. Steve Corda, SES vice president-business development North America, said the Rutgers demos "are designed to compare the scalability and reliability of a satellite-based CDN with terrestrial networks," saying it will "explore intelligent content caching and routing to determine when it makes sense to deliver over-the-top video via satellite or terrestrially, and when to cache that content at the network edge."

Dish Network and broadcasters China Central TV (CCTV) and TVB Holdings are suing HTV International (HTVI), the maker of the h.TV set-top box, for pirating CCTV and TVB TV programming. In a 32-page suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, they allege h.TV set-top subscribers, after a one-time payment of up to $300 for the box, receive unlicensed signals from China, Hong Kong and other nations, with Dish having some rights to TVB distribution in the U.S. h.TV's "massive piracy" works through a peer-to-peer network, with some h.TV users not only receiving programming streams but also retransmitting those streams to other h.TV users, according to the suit. The plaintiffs also allege HTVI has "gone to great lengths to conceal ... infringing activity" by claiming it has no role in the third-party h.TV apps that allow users to access and share the infringing content, but those app developers don't exist "or are controlled by HTVI," and the company is directly responsible for the capturing of CCTV and TVB broadcasts and development and dissemination of the apps. In the suit, the plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction from transmitting or distributing CCTV and TVB programming or selling an h.TV device that offers that programming, plus unspecified damages. HTVI didn't comment.

Roberson & Associates' testing of LTE interference with GPS is complete, with the final results likely to be filed with the FCC in early May, Ligado Networks said. In an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 12-340 about a phone call with Wireless Bureau Associate Chief Charles Mathias, Ligado said it expects to file a final report on the relationship between a 1 dB change in carrier-to-noise density and GPS device interference, and details on its testing processes and methodology. Ligado said earlier the testing was proving signals from its proposed LTE network won't interfere with GPS navigation devices (see 1602250032).

Intelsat and BBC World News renewed and expanded their distribution contract, with BBC World News standard definition and HD content to be delivered to Asia and the Americas using Galaxy 13, Intelsat 19, Intelsat 20 and Intelsat 21, plus Intelsat's IntelsatOne terrestrial network of teleports and leased fiber, the satellite company said in a news release Thursday.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a petition for hearing en banc filed by Texas lawyer/plaintiff Larry Polsky seeking a rehearing of his consumer complaint against Dish Network. In its order (in Pacer) Wednesday, the three-judge panel said no member of the panel nor judge in active service sought a poll. The 5th Circuit in March upheld a previous U.S. District Court in Houston summary judgment tossing out Polsky's consumer complaint against Dish, calling his claims frivolous (see 1603030026). Polsky didn't comment Thursday.

Ligado continues to press the FCC for a public notice seeking comment on its proposed license modification and rulemaking request for sharing of 1675-1680 MHz. In an ex parte filing Wednesday in docket 12-340, Ligado recapped a meeting with its lawyers including ex-FCC Chairman Reed Hunt with current FCC staff including Wireless Bureau Chief Jon Wilkins and Office of Engineering and Technology Deputy Chief Ron Repasi at which it said it discussed its work with stakeholders on its network deployment plans. Putting out a PN "would provide all interested parties the opportunity to comment on the new power limits and the company's plans for terrestrial deployment and how these limitations will benefit all consumer GPS devices," Ligado said. It and others repeatedly have asked for a PN (see 1604040034, 1602120052 and 1602040015).

Intelsat hopes to start moving JCSAT-RA from 128 degrees east to 169 degrees east by early 2017. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, Intelsat -- which is taking over JCSAT-RA from owner Sky Perfect JSAT -- sought authority for the drift and to operate JCSAT-RA at 169 degrees east. It said it expects to have the drift done in Q2 2017, and the satellite will collocate with Intelsat 8 and Intelsat 805 and bridge any gaps in service between their retirement and the arrival of Horizons 3e, expected in Q1 2019. The end of service life for JCSAT-RA is expected to be in 2024, Intelsat said.