Intelsat is again seeking more time to drift Intelsat 16 from 76.2 degrees west to 58.1 degrees west. In an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday, Intelsat said an unspecified "unexpected delay" has caused a late start to the drift, which it now expects to "begin ... shortly," and asked for a 30-day extension in its special temporary authority through Feb. 1. The drift had been expected to begin Nov. 4 (see 1509280024), and the satellite company cited similar reasons when at the end of that month it asked for an extension through Jan. 2 in its special temporary authority (see 1512010014).

The AMC-8/Aurora III satellite has at least four-plus more years of operational life, SES Americom and Alascom said in an FCC International Bureau filing submitted Tuesday requesting an extension of the satellite's license term to June 30, 2020. The holders of a joint license on the satellite also requested authority to deorbit AMC-8 at the end of its life. The C-band satellite began operations in 2001 and is at 139 degrees west, and its current license term expires March 1. Apart from solar array circuit failures that have affected the power available to it, AMC-8's "overall health is good," SES and Alascom said.

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), which is being bought by Comtech Telecommunications, is asking the FCC to reassign its licenses for its C-band fixed satellite earth stations and Ku-band very small aperture terminal earth stations to Comtech. In a pair of International Bureau applications filed Wednesday (see here and here), TCS said Comtech has put up a tender offer of $5 per share for all outstanding TCS stock. The communications services companies, in announcing the $431 million combination last month, said they expect the deal to close by March.

Kymeta and Intelsat finished initial mobility-related testing of Kymeta's flat-panel antennas on Intelsat's satellite network for maritime and automotive applications, they said in a news release. The automotive testing involved embedding a Kymeta Ku-band antenna into an auto roof and using it to acquire and track satellite signals while mobile. Kymeta also built and tested a glass-on-glass thin-film-transistor-based antenna for maritime use, it said Tuesday.

Intelsat -- followed by SES, Eutelsat, EchoStar Satellite Services and Telesat -- was No. 1 on the World Teleport Associations' 2015 rankings of the top global teleport operators, WTA said in a news release Wednesday. The annual rankings are compiled based on revenue and revenue growth by publicly held companies and surveys of teleport operators, WTA said. The seven top companies in WTA's Fast 20 rankings all reported double-digit growth over the past year, the industry group said. Emerging Markets Communications topped the Fast 20 rankings with 97.14 percent revenue growth, followed by Global Data Systems at 68.89 percent and SpeedCast at 32.56 percent, WTA said. Among independent operators -- excluding firms whose primary business is owning or operating a satellite fleet or terrestrial network -- 62 percent of those surveyed saw year-over-year revenue growth, with that growth averaging 25 percent, while 38 percent saw revenue declines, with that decline year over year averaging 7 percent, WTA said.

Dish Network's argument for a delay in certifying the class in a lawsuit focuses on an "attenuated and nebulous" argument that the Supreme Court's pending decision in a separate case could have some bearing, the plaintiffs in Ernst et al. v. Dish and Sterling Infosystems said in an opposition memorandum of law filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The 2012 suit (case No. 1:12-cv-08794-LGS) alleges Dish and background check company Sterling violate the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in their use of credit reports to do background checks on prospective employees or subcontractors. Dish earlier this month filed a motion to stay the plaintiffs' motion for class certification, saying the Spokeo vs. Robbins case now before the Supreme Court -- which also involves alleged FCRA violations -- will affect class certification and court jurisdiction issues. But Dish has litigated the case for months with Spokeo pending, and "only now, facing an adverse decision on class certification" does the Supreme Court matter come up, the plaintiffs said. For Spokeo to overlap into the Dish case, they said, "the Court would be required to issue a sweeping decision extending well beyond the issues presented and to overturn well-established precedent regarding informational injuries."

After one unsuccessful application to the FCC International Bureau, iHeartMedia (IHM) again seeks a modification of the license for its Arapahoe, Colorado, earth station. In an IB application filed Tuesday, IHM said its new application omitted the errors in its original modification application filed in June and rejected by the IB in October. The rejection pointed to problems with the Schedule B attachment, and in its application IHM said it opted to delete the Schedule B attachment completely instead of correcting and refiling it.

LightSquared has dropped GPS receiver maker Trimble from the list of defendants in its 2013 lawsuit brought against Deere, Garmin and Trimble and the U.S. GPS Industry Council (see 1311040060) after they raised concerns that LightSquared's LTE network could interfere with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum space. Those concerns led to the FCC's revoking LightSquared’s terrestrial spectrum license, ultimately forcing it into bankruptcy. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman of Manhattan on Monday signed an order granting LightSquared a stipulation of voluntary dismissal without prejudice. The court filing gave no details about the confidential agreement with Trimble, except that each side will bear its own costs. The Trimble agreement follows an agreement between LightSquared and Deere that has LightSquared foregoing use of 1545-1555 MHz in its LTE plans (see 1512080022). In a joint statement Tuesday, LightSquared and Trimble said they "agreed to work together with the relevant government agencies to implement a mutually acceptable compromise approach to resolution of the outstanding issues relating to use of New LightSquared’s spectrum. Pending further discussions with the agencies, the parties have agreed to maintain confidentiality with respect to the details of the proposed compromise approach.”

Critics of Globalstar's planned latest broadband terrestrial low-power service are intensifying TLPS lobbying before the FCC. Ex parte notices from Google and the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) were posted Monday in docket 13-213 indicating representatives met with agency officials to raise TLPS questions. WCAI's filing repeated its contention (see 1511020016) Globalstar failed to show how TLPS "will meet Globalstar's absolute obligation" to protect broadband radio service and educational broadband service operations in adjacent bands. WCAI's filing said it and Sprint representatives met with Edward Smith, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Google in its filing said it met with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and front-line Wheeler staff. While Wi-Fi and other public uses of the unlicensed 2472-2483.5 MHz spectrum "are effectively precluded" because they might interfere with Globalstar's satellite operations above 2484.5, Globalstar's TLPS "is at bottom a proposal for compatible terrestrial and satellite uses of these same frequencies," Google said. So the FCC "should reassess whether public use of Channel 14 ... is possible without harmful interference" to Globalstar's mobile satellite service (MSS) operations, it said. And if they're compatible, Google said, any TLPS approval should wait until after a rulemaking changing the technical rules on general public use of the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. Google also listed a variety of questions it said Globalstar needs to address, including whether Globalstar's TLPS interferes with its own satellite service and what scenarios might require mitigation, and how does its harmful interference concern about public operation of Part 15 devices in channel 14 differ from interference concerns between TLPS and its own MSS. The ex parte filings followed a similar one posted Friday by the Entertainment Software Association, Microsoft, NCTA and Wi-Fi Alliance (see 1512110068). In a statement, Globalstar said that when it filed its petition three years ago, "We knew that our proposed TLPS operations on Channel 14 would have a substantial positive impact on the worsening Wi-Fi congestion happening around the country. While we never proposed TLPS as the only solution, we certainly understood then that it would provide immediate relief while the Commission and the industry continued to consider other possibilities that would take years, if not a decade or more, to come to fruition. Three years later, TLPS still represents the only immediate solution, and our real world demonstrations and deployments this year have entirely exceeded our own expectations regarding the substantial benefits that we can provide to consumers wanting a better mobile broadband experience." Globalstar also said it expects the FCC to finish its review "after the new year."

With its 29e scheduled for a Jan. 27 launch, Intelsat is seeking FCC special temporary authority to do in-orbit testing (IOT) of the satellite while it's at 49.7 degrees west and then to drift it to its permanent location of 50 degrees west. Intelsat said in an International Bureau filing Friday it has wrapped up coordination talks with Dish Network, Hispasat and Inmarsat, which have co-frequency, co-coverage satellites within six degrees of 49.7 degrees west, and is in coordination talks with SES World Skies. The IOT is to run Feb. 8-April 7, Intelsat said. The 29e will be the first satellite of the company's high-throughput EpicNG constellation (see 1512110038).