A coalition of 13 satellite industry organizations urged presidential candidates to ensure that U.S. leadership in space continues. They asked that America “maintain and expand internationally harmonized spectrum access for space.” In what the groups called an unprecedented collaboration by the industry organizations, their four-page action plan said that “given the significant infrastructure development and investment [the U.S. has made] it is critical to have predictable and stable regulatory access to spectrum." They also backed a long-term budget plan since they said erratic federal government budgeting has led to “cost and schedule inefficiencies.” Representatives of three of the groups discussed the plan Friday at the National Press Club: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Executive Director Sandra Magnus, Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham and Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Eric Stallmer. The plan from those groups, the Satellite Industry Association and others said U.S. space leadership is at risk. Among recommendations are reducing barriers to international trade and expanding internationally harmonized spectrum access for space.

Calling the plaintiff's claims "contrary to common sense and good faith ... not supported by record evidence and ... frivolous," the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court in Houston summary judgment in August tossing out a consumer complaint against Dish Network. Texas attorney/plaintiff Larry Polsky sued Dish in 2014, alleging violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In its ruling Tuesday, the 5th Circuit called the Houston court's analogy "apt" when it said Polsky's lawsuit -- in which he claimed damages because Dish didn't actually monitor his Internet usage in off-peak hours in his service plan, which limited him to 15 Gb per month during off-peak times -- was akin to suing a fast-food restaurant for selling one customer a large fountain drink but then not ensuring other customers don't buy medium cups and get free refills. The 5th Circuit also said Wednesday it agreed with the lower court's logic in rejecting Polsky's Hopper-related claims and claims for relief under Texas Business and Commercial Code. Polsky didn't comment Thursday.

As part of SES subsidiary SES Astra Services Europe's takeover of RR Media, the two companies need FCC International Bureau approval of transfer of RR Media's earth station licenses to SES, they said in an IB application Wednesday. The two said RR Media's Hawley, Pennsylvania, teleport will continue to be used just for non-common carrier video and radio distribution services after the acquisition, and won't interconnect with a public switched telephone network. They also said the planned acquisition "will enhance SES’s ability to provide high quality content management and distribution services to a wide range of broadcasters, cable networks, and direct broadcast satellite operators." No timeframe was given on when they expect to close on the transfer of control.

Dish Network's Sling added over-the-top millennial-targeted digital news service Newsy to its $20 monthly Best of Live TV package, channel owner E.W. Scripps said in a Wednesday news release. It said the programmer's live stream will be available to Sling subscribers "in the coming months." Newsy in January said it was starting a Washington bureau (see 1601280046).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau and EchoStar are in a disagreement over security issues for satellite communications terminals. The bureau, in a filing Tuesday in RM-11664, said it was supplementing a previous EchoStar ex parte filing on a meeting between EchoStar and FCC staff over proposed uses of the 28 GHz and 38 GHz bands. At the meeting, FCC staff questioned fixed satellite service security readiness and provided an IOActive presentation describing numerous security vulnerabilities in terminals, such as back doors, hard-coded credentials, insecure protocols and weak password resets. According to the FCC, EchoStar "stated that it was familiar with the IOActive research paper but indicated it contained some inaccuracies, without elaborating." The FCC, in a footnote in Monday's filing, said its staff "is not aware of any inaccuracies associated with this research."

Orbcomm began using its 11 second-generation OG2 satellites in commercial service, it said in a news release Tuesday. The OG2 satellites, which launched in December, provide machine-to-machine messaging and automatic identification system services, and are operating in three separate drift orbit planes, the company said.

AT&T's DirecTV video services will be offered via streaming over mobile devices, smart TVs and PCs sometime in Q4, AT&T said in a news release Tuesday. The company said the three video packages -- DirecTV Now, DirecTV Mobile and DirecTV Preview -- won't require annual contracts, satellite dishes or set-top boxes. The advertising-supported Preview package will be free and feature some content from AT&T's Audience Network and a variety of other networks and content sources, plus millennial-targeted video from Otter Media, AT&T said. The Mobile package will be focused on smartphone users, while the Now package will include "much of what is available from DirecTV today" in on-demand and live programming and also have a number of add-on options, the company said. It also said it will continue to provide DirecTV's satellite TV service and its U-verse TV and Internet service.

Dish Network and the states suing it over robocall allegations are dueling over post-trial discovery issues and related costs, with each side calling the other "disingenuous." U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough of Springfield, Illinois, last week ordered California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio -- which alongside the FTC are suing Dish for alleged violations of the telemarketing sales rule (see 0903260144) -- to pay costs and fees for post-trial discovery about residential addresses associated with telephone numbers. A states' motion last week asked the court to sanction Dish for allegedly hiding, until the last week of trial, data on the states of residence for recipients of telemarketing calls, and order Dish to pay the states' costs and fees for area code analyses they wouldn't have undertaken "if Dish had produced the state address information" as required by discovery orders. That trial testimony "revealed that for years and even during the trial, Dish had been disingenuous [by] representing that the state of residence for the recipients of its telemarketing calls is unknowable," the states said. They also asked that the court reconsider its order granting costs and fees to Dish for any further discovery on one of the area code analyses. In an opposition filed Monday, Dish said, "It is the State Plaintiffs whose positions here are disingenuous" when they don't acknowledge that Dish retailers made close to 90 percent of the calls in question and the company has no information about the addresses. The motion for sanctions should be denied given that the discovery requests given to Dish "are so broad and general as to cover virtually any information in [its] databases," Dish said. The company also said the court should deny the states' motion to reconsider the decision ordering them to pay Dish's costs and attorney fees for the area code analyses, because the states' arguments are the same the court previously shot down.

Gogo plans to make satellite modems compatible with its planned 2Ku in-flight connectivity service and commercially available in 2017, it said in a news release Monday. Testing for the modem will begin on Gogo's Boeing 737 test lab "in the coming months," Gogo said. The modem will be capable of delivering 400 Mbps to an aircraft and of simultaneously supporting IP streaming and IPTV, it said. Gogo said it's working with Gilat Satellite Networks on modem development.

With its Inmarsat-3 F5 satellite in orbit and to take over traffic currently carried by Inmarsat-3 F4 starting on Thursday, Inmarsat is asking the FCC International Bureau for a 60-day special temporary authorization starting that day for F5 to operate with mobile earth stations while an application to replace F4 with F5 is pending. The two satellites were last in a series of third-generation satellites and are virtually identical in design and operate in the same parameters, Inmarsat said in a set of IB filings last Thursday (see here, here and here).