Intelsat hopes to slightly move its Intelsat 1R satellite from 50 to 50.1 degrees west, and to extend its license term and existing waivers for more than seven years, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Friday. The relocation is to make way for Intelsat 29e, which launched Jan. 27 and is expected to arrive at 50 degrees west at month's end, it said. Intelsat said it expects to begin drifting 1R in June or July and have it at 50.1 degrees west within days, where it will nominally colocate with 29e. Intelsat 1R launched in November 2000, with its current license term set to expire on June 24, the company said. The satellite's expected lifespan is estimated to run to August 2018, though it could be extended five additional years in an inclined orbit operation. To accommodate the possibility of an inclined orbit position, Intelsat said it also would like the license term extended through Aug. 31, 2023.

Network services price competition is proving to be a major hurdle for Intelsat, though the satellite company hopes its Epic high-throughput satellite constellation starts offsetting those declines, company officials said Monday as they announced Q4 results. The company said preliminary revenue for 2015 was $2.35 billion, while 2016 is expected to bring revenue of $2.14 billion-$2.2 billion, with the declines coming from a number of network services contract renewals, CEO Stephen Spengler said on a conference call. The company's first high-throughput Epic satellite -- Intelsat 29e -- launched in January, with three more set to launch later this year, he said. The company signed nine Epic agreements in Q4, most of them with current customers transitioning from current satellites to the Epic constellation, Spengler said. But, he said that "we do see Epic as not just a transitionary platform but a growth platform." Spengler said the company is developing new platforms to take advantage of the high-throughput capabilities, pointing to Intelsat's sponsorship of a cross-country drive of a Kymeta-connected car (see 1512160011) that will be on display at Satellite 2016 in March at the Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Applications like automotive connectivity and IoT are "where we can create value for our customers," Spengler said. Intelsat stock closed Monday at $2.72, down 9.6 percent.

Garmin announced a smartwatch and an activity tracker Friday, ahead of this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The $249 vívoactive HR smartwatch counts steps, floors climbed, intensity minutes and monitors sleep, said Garmin. On an earnings call last week, Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble said the company is targeting 10 percent revenue growth in the fitness segment in 2016 -- split among trackers and cycling and running devices -- with new products playing a “key role” in growth projections. Garmin’s Q4 revenue slipped 3 percent year over year to $781 million on currency rate changes and ongoing declines in the personal navigation device market, said Pemble. The company expanded its position with Honda and is now in the Pilot, Accord, Civic and CRV models, and Garmin navigation also is now in Mercedes-Benz C and E class vehicles, Pemble said. Garmin believes it's the market-share leader in the GPS-enabled wearables category with low- to mid-40 percent share, said Pemble. The wearables category expanded “significantly” in the past year but is still in growth mode, he said.

DirecTV and an Arizona customer suing it for supposed Electronic Fund Transfer Act violations settled. In a filing Friday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, plaintiff Rosario Torres said all claims in her putative class action were settled. Torres sued DirecTV in January after signing up for the direct broadcast satellite service and having several months of bills being taken out of her bank account when she said she never authorized it to make such electronic fund transfers and that her signature authorized only the first month's payment. The filing didn't give terms of the settlement. AT&T now owns DirecTV.

Dish Network is interested in taking part in the March broadcast spectrum auction, and said in an SEC filing Thursday it filed an application Feb. 10 "to potentially participate as a bidder." It didn't say what plans it had for any spectrum it might buy. The FCC Wireless Bureau earlier this month rejected a T-Mobile petition asking that Dish and designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless be classified as "former defaulters" if they participate in the TV incentive auction because of alleged bidding abuses in the AWS-3 auction (see 1602040024). In a note to investors, UBS analyst John Hodulik said limits on discounts for very small companies and Dish's higher leverage likely will limit its bidding ability. The company, in announcing its fiscal 2015 results, said it finished the year with 13.9 million subscribers, vs. roughly 14 million pay-TV subscribers a year earlier. It also finished the year with 623,000 DishNet broadband subscribers, up from 577,000 a year earlier, and the company said it hopes to grow those broadband subscription rolls this year. It said satellite capacity has limited its ability to expand services in some geographic markets, but satellite launches by Hughes and ViaSat in the second half of this year should alleviate those constraints. The company also said its EchoStar XVIII satellite -- which is being built with spot beam technology allowing HD programming -- is to launch in Q2 2016. No satellites are scheduled to end operation this year, though EchoStar IX is operating "month to month," the company said.

Iridium received a General Dynamics contract for its Iridium Extreme 9575 satellite handset to be redesigned for government use, the satellite company said in a news release Tuesday. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Iridium said the Extreme is replacing its 9505A handset.

Hughes Network Systems finished implementation of a managed enterprise network for the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration, bringing remote connectivity to the agency's Mine Emergency Operations vehicles and facilities, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The contract has a ceiling value of about $1.36 million over the course of one year plus four option years, Hughes said.

SoftBank will provide high-speed commercial LTE service in Japan this year using Gilat's satellite-based cellular capabilities, the companies said in an announcement Tuesday. SoftBank said it already provides 3G mobile communications in Japan using satellite communications as backhaul. The LTE service announcement follows trials demonstrating file transfer protocol downlink rates of up to 100 Mbps using actual mobile handsets, the two said. “We will be able to also offer high-speed LTE services in mountainous regions, remote islands and other areas in Japan where it is difficult to install fixed-line backhaul cost-effectively and quickly," said SoftBank Head-Technology Unit Yasuyuki Imai. "We already have satellite-based backhaul in those regions, but now we will be able to offer our customers LTE speeds. We also expect to see the application of this technology to the mobile network of our group company Sprint in the U.S. Our hope is that this technology will help play a role in bridging the digital divide.”

Gogo still hopes to win back American Airlines from in-flight connectivity rival ViaSat, even though American is suing Gogo, Gogo said in an SEC filing Tuesday. American Airlines sued Gogo in Tarrant County, Texas, Friday, seeking a declaration that the airline properly notified the in-flight connectivity company about ViaSat's offering "a materially improved service." The suit says a clause in American's contract with Gogo lets the airline terminate that agreement when it finds a competitive offering better than Gogo's air-to-ground (ATG) system, but Gogo "refuses to acknowledge or accept American's notice letter under the agreement." In the suit, American said Gogo's ATG system provides at most 10 Mbps of bandwidth to be shared among all users on a given flight, and blocks most video content, but "new satellite-based services offer 12 Mbps per device [and] offer gate-to-gate WiFi access for customers, even over oceans." In a statement filed with the SEC, Gogo said that American "is a valued customer of ours and that we look forward to resolving the disagreement regarding contract interpretation that led to this declaratory judgment action." It also said it plans to give American a competing proposal to install its 2Ku satellite service on the air carrier. "We plan to submit a competing proposal to install our latest satellite technology -- 2Ku -- on this fleet. We believe that 2Ku is the best performing technology in the market and look forward to discussing our offer with American," Gogo said. In a statement Tuesday, American said it "continually evaluates in-flight connectivity service to determine what best meets our customers’ needs and wants. We’ve notified Gogo of a competitor’s offering, and we will evaluate all of our options.”

Inmarsat wants to add its Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite at 180 degrees east as a point of communication for all its authorized and pending earth stations covered by Global Xpress Ka-band maritime mobile blanket earth station license. In an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday, Inmarsat said the satellite's coverage area would add the Pacific Ocean, West Coast and Pacific Rim to the terminals' area of operation. Inmarsat said it also was seeking authority to operate fixed or temporary earth station terminals communicating with the satellite on land within the continental U.S., Hawaii and U.S. territories, and on fixed and mobile offshore platforms.