Gilat Satellite Networks will publicly unveil Architecture for SkyEdge II-c, its distributed architecture for the high-throughput satellite (HTS) market, this week at the China Satellite Conference in Beijing, the company said in a news release Tuesday. It said the programmable, cloud-based architecture allows networks of any size, using wide-beam and HTS, to deliver managed services in hosted or virtual network business models.

SES and travel industry content and connectivity company Global Eagle Entertainment signed a set of multiyear multitransponder agreements for Global Eagle to get additional bandwidth through SES for its services, SES said in a news release Tuesday. SES said Global Eagle already was adding bandwidth on six of its satellites, and the agreements also will see it providing teleport services and ground infrastructure. Global Eagle also will have access to the high-throughput satellite capacity on SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15, which are to be launched in 2017, it said.

Intelsat's opposition to the two-degree spacing rule largely involves it trying to secure a competitive advantage, particularly against nascent companies and new satellites, EchoStar and SES said in FCC ex parte filings (see here and here) in docket 12-267 posted Tuesday. They said that SES and EchoStar representatives met with Nicholas Degani of Commissioner Ajit Pai's office and separately with International Bureau staff, and defended the two-degree rule status quo and repeated their pushback against Intelsat arguments that ITU coordination would be preferable to the FCC spacing rules (see [Ref:1508210020]). Minus two-degree spacing, new satellite companies and space stations "could be blocked by incumbents indefinitely based on conservative ITU coordination criteria," the two said, saying Intelsat's holding of "numerous high priority ITU filings" would be to its benefit over other operators: "Operators -- primarily Intelsat -- would have effective veto power over any other operator's new or replacement satellites." Meanwhile, discussion of special protection for incumbents with satellites in operation that don't comply with the two-degree separation rule would similarly be to Intelsat's unfair benefit, EchoStar and SES said. "Given that Intelsat’s numerous ITU filings are among the oldest in the world, [it] will likely claim this special protection at virtually every orbital location," the net result being a de facto end to the two-degree policy anyway, they said. Instead, the satellite companies said, the FCC should keep the rule and increase two-degree spacing operating levels "to more realistically and accurately correspond with those of modern satellite systems." Intelsat didn't comment.

The FCC is wasting time and effort on Globalstar's proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), and should end the proceeding and deny the satellite company's request, Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) said in a filing posted Monday in docket 13-213. It responded to a Globalstar submission last month detailing the company's TLPS test on a college campus (see 1509110018), and said the filing "proves nothing and is as vague and non-transparent as the prior Globalstar demonstrations." Bluetooth SIG called details about Bluetooth testing "almost insulting in their lack of detail and specificity." The group has said its own demonstrations earlier this year show that TLPS interference with Bluetooth could have detrimental effects on Bluetooth devices (see [Ref:1503240047]), and repeated that point now. That it was not asked to take part in this latest TLPS testing, despite having asked to be included, must point to "a real cause for concern that proper testing would expose," Bluetooth SIG said. Globalstar still hasn't made "a coherent case" for why it should be exempt from industrial, scientific and medical radio band regulations, Bluetooth SIG said. In a statement, Globalstar General Counsel Barbee Ponder said the SIG filing contained "nothing new," with the group "forget[ting] the collaborative testing that was done at the Commission in March which showed that TLPS had no perceptible impact on BlueTooth devices. Indeed, BlueTooth has refused to make available the audio files of their hearing aid demonstration that confirms the lack of any such impact. By contrast, we have posted a video of our demonstration showing the compatibility of TLPS with BlueTooth."

LightSquared is happy to incorporate GPS network timing devices into its GPS/LTE compatibility testing if need be, though it and the GPS timing industry have already looked deeply into that issue and even come up with fixes, LightSquared said in an ex parte presentation posted Tuesday in FCC docket 12-340. The filing included LightSquared's Transportation Department filing as that agency took comments on DOT's proposed test plan to evaluate interference potential between LightSquared's proposed wireless broadband network and GPS devices -- a test plan LightSquared was highly critical of (see 1510210022). The test plan "establishes that DOT refused to measure what counts: the impact of any interference on performance of the device," LightSquared said Tuesday. Along with repeating those criticisms of DOT, LightSquared's latest filing was aimed at issues raised by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) in its DOT filing on GPS timing devices. ATIS member Alcatel-Lucent notified its customers about a new antenna that could resolve any adjacent band interference issues -- that notification springing from talks with LightSquared, it said.

With the Samtex 5 satellite moving to a different orbital location, Row 44 seeks FCC International Bureau approval to shift its earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA) operations to the AMC-1 satellite. The company said in an IB filing posted Friday that instead of the 100 aeronautical mobile earth stations (AMES) it's authorized to use with AMC-1, it needs special temporary authority to boost that number to up to 300 for 60 days, starting by Nov. 2. The AMC-1 operations would be in the Ku-band, using 11.7-12.2 GHz for downlink and 14-14.5 GHz for uplink, Row 44 said. That filing is in conjunction with an application filed last month seeking permanent modification of its ESAA license to use AMC-1 as a point of communication.

Comments on potential ground-path interference rules for 17/24 GHz reverse band broadcasting satellite service (BSS) operations are due Nov. 25, replies Dec. 10, the FCC said in a notice in Monday's Federal Register. The International Bureau said earlier this month it was soliciting fresh comment in docket 06-123 on proposed rules to mitigate what it saw as potentially increasing interference in populated areas with 17/24 GHz reverse band BSS subscriber antennas (see 1510080043).

Gogo wants to add 10 satellites to its blanket license to operate Ku-band earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA), the satellite company said in an FCC International Bureau filing posted Thursday. The requested satellites to be added as points of communication are AMC-1, Galaxy 17, Intelsat 18, Eutelsat 115 West B, Eutelsat 117 West A, JCSAT-2B, JCSAT-5A, Yamal 500K, Yamal 401 and AsiaSat 7, Gogo said. It no longer will use Satmex-5, and that can be removed from its license, Gogo said. Its ESAA operations "are consistent with the coordination agreements between the satellites ... and operators of adjacent spacecraft," Gogo said. In connection with that application, Gogo filed a separate submission Thursday seeking special temporary authority -- starting by Nov. 6 and running for 60 days -- to allow up to 200 ESAA terminals to communicate with Eutelsat 115 West B and Eutelsat 117 West A. That would allow it to continue servicing flights over North and South America during Satmex-5's replacement and relocation, Gogo said.

Iridium wants approval to allow Harris receive-only hosted payloads onto its Next satellite constellation, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing posted Thursday. The Harris hosted payloads would be capable of receiving across the 156.0125-162.0375 MHz maritime VHF band from existing ship-based transmitter, with the signals then being downlinked to Iridium earth stations and transported to a Harris facility, Iridium said. The hosted payload would allow "deployment of a robust VHF Automatic Identification System and maritime domain awareness system" for government and commercial customers, and poses no risk of additional interference, Iridium said. The satellite company said testing of Next payloads is underway and it expects the first launches for its communications satellite constellation in December, though the first space vehicle including the Harris hosted payload would be the second Next launch, slated for April, and then on each subsequent Next launch.

Arianespace signed a variety of extensions to its ground service contracts for operation of the Guiana Space Center launch complexes, the company said Wednesday. The three-year extensions will run through the end of 2019 and cover maintenance and operation of ground facilities, it said. The contract extensions are part of the competitiveness plan it initiated in 2014, it said.