Sentech extended its contract with Intelsat by several years, Intelsat said Friday. Sentech uses Ku-band capacity on Intelsat 20 for its direct-to-home and digital terrestrial TV services in Africa, Intelsat said.
Even a small, 1 dB increase in a noise floor can affect GPS accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity "in unexpected or dramatic ways," Garmin said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340. Garmin and LightSquared are at loggerheads over whether LightSquared's planned ground-and-satellite-based LTE broadband network could interfere with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum bands (see 1509090013). The filing summarized a meeting between Scott Burgett, Garmin's director-global navigation satellite system and software technology, and Philip Verveer, Chairman Tom Wheeler's senior counselor. Garmin said it remains focused on protecting global navigation satellite system applications from interference "while potentially exploring ways that currently underutilized spectrum in adjacent bands can be made more productive."
Arianespace plans to launch a pair of communications satellites Monday -- the Sky Muster for Australia's nbn and Invap-built Arsat-2 for Argentina's Arsat, it said Thursday. The launch on an Ariane 5 rocket will be from Kourou, French Guiana, Arianespace said.
Inmarsat wants to add the Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite to its Global Xpress Ka-band aeronautical mobile blanket earth station license. The modification would let Inmarsat broaden its Ka-band aeronautical service to add coverage to aircraft travel in the Pacific Ocean region, Inmarsat said in an application filed Wednesday. Inmarsat-5 F3 went into orbit in August (see 1508280018).
Globalstar's recent terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) test deployment results have gaping holes, as the company still hasn't made any data available on how TLPS effects Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy devices, and the methodology used in that test deployment "raises a series of basic questions," Gerst Capital said in an FCC filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-213. Globalstar in its test results (see 1509110018) "dramatically overstates" the increased Wi-Fi capacity that comes with TLPS "by ignoring the ... 5GHz channels freely available today," Gerst said. Controlled testing of TLPS alongside Wi-Fi channel 11 shows interference, Gerst said, and previous Globalstar testing actually removed coexistence filters and also was not configured at maximum power -- which would have resulted in notably higher Bluetooth and Channel 11 interference. The FCC should either terminate the proceeding or -- if it still needs further analysis or test data -- put out updated guidance so interested parties can focus on providing that information, Gerst said. It said that Greg Gerst, principal at the hedge fund and a frequent TLPS plan critic (see 1503190025), met with legal advisors for commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Michael O'Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. Globalstar has dismissed Gerst criticisms in the past as coming from a shortseller trying to create doubt. In its own ex parte filing posted Tuesday, Globalstar said it met with those same legal advisors to go over those TLPS test results and urged the FCC to adopt the 2013 proposed rules that would allow TLPS deployment "without further delay." Another Globalstar TLPS critic, the Wireless Communications Association, has also said the TLPS deployment test didn't end interference worries and questions (see 1509210041).
Small satellites pose their own regulatory issues and should be handled separately from the FCC's current look at changes to the Part 25 rules for earth and space station licensing, the Satellite Industry Association said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-267. SIA said it is considering filing a petition for rulemaking specifically regarding small satellites. A parade of satellite industry representatives met with International Bureau staff to lay out industry proposals for Part 25 changes, the filing said. Present at the meeting were executives from or representatives of Boeing, DirecTV, EchoStar, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Iridium, Kymeta, OneWeb, O3b and SES, said SIA, which said the satellite industry "urged the Commission to move expeditiously" on an order. Among the industry-proposed changes are the recommendation the FCC should go further in its proposal that it file with the ITU an operator proposal for a geostationary satellite (GSO) for non-planned fixed satellite service (FSS) bands before a full space station application needs to be filed, SIA said. The FCC should allow ITU filings before license applications for non-geostationary (NGSO) operations in non-planned FSS bands as well as for GSO and NGSO operations in bands outside of FSS, SIA said. Current ITU filing practices put domestic applicants at a competitive disadvantage as they must disclose detailed space station plans before the FCC will file with the ITU, meaning operators have a disincentive to obtain U.S. licensing of new satellite systems, SIA said. The SIA group also told IB staff some technical rules "could be simplified, and in some cases relaxed" to help get products to market faster, though the changes would not materially increase the risk of interference.
Intelsat sought FCC International Bureau permission to provide MexSat-G2 launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) services. The satellite is scheduled to go up Oct. 2, and LEOP is expected to last 10 days, Intelsat said in its IB application filed Monday. The company said it plans to use its Castle Rock, Colorado, Ku-band earth station for LEOP operations.
Dish Network added an online appointment tool, My Tech, giving customers information about Dish technicians on the way to their homes, including the person's name, picture and current location. Dish said Tuesday that My Tech is available on mydish.com to all Dish customers with a scheduled service appointment, and includes a real-time countdown for the technician's arrival.
Universal Space Network is asking for International Bureau approval to provide launch and early orbit (LEOP) support services alongside the European Space Agency and Swedish Space Corp. when the Sentinels-3A satellite is launched. The satellite is scheduled to go up Nov. 2 from the CNES space center in Kourou, French Guiana, USN said in its IB application filed Thursday, and LEOP support is expected to take up to seven days. USN plans to use its Alaska ground station and conduct LEOP services in the S-band.
The network operating system for Globalstar's planned terrestrial low-power service helps assure there will be no interference with unlicensed spectrum, iPass CEO Gary Griffiths said in a letter posted Wednesday in FCC docket 13-213. The letter repeated support the Wi-Fi hot spot company had expressed earlier this year for Globalstar's plans to set up a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band. In a filing earlier this month, Globalstar said its TLPS won't interfere with Wi-Fi, but any TLPS network operating system would include means for operators of licensed and unlicensed services to notify it of any possible interference (see 1509110018). That pledge "sets a path that can give the FCC and all other users of the band confidence that TLPS will be an innovative, pro-consumer compliment to existing use of this band," iPass said.