A massive low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of Ku-band OneWeb satellites is planned to be put into orbit starting in 2016 that will tie into Intelsat's geostationary orbit satellite network to create a worldwide high-throughput network. OneWeb announced the planned network of more than 600 satellites Thursday. It said it hired Arianespace to do 21 Soyuz launches of its satellites and Virgin Galactic for another 39 using its LauncherOne. It also said it has raised $500 million from a group of companies to help develop broadband technology including the terminals that will allow its LEO satellites to interoperate with Intelsat's GEO satellites. Those investors are Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola, Grupo Salinas, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Qualcomm and Virgin Group.

Globalstar now operates in Africa. It said Thursday its gateway in Gaborone, Botswana, is operational, opening the door for it to offer its Simplex data services across the continent jointly with Broadband Botswana Internet. Globalstar said it's targeting offerings at such applications as commercial trucking fleet; mining and construction equipment tracking; and livestock and endangered species monitoring.

LightSquared is asking for U.S. Transportation Department feedback on a plan for testing how terrestrial broadband and GPS might co-exist. In an FCC ex parte filing in docket 12-340 posted Wednesday, it said technology consulting firm Roberson and Associates gave the DOT some initial outlines on its testing approach. The testing involves spectrum used by global navigation satellite system (GNSS) spectrum and its proximity to spectrum used by LightSquared and Inmarsat, and how LTE bases or handsets can cause interference with nearby GPS receivers. The Roberson testing proposal will look at actual devices from such providers as Apple, Garmin, Magellan, Samsung, Topcon and Trimble, and measure the relationship of GPS error and signal-to-noise ratios. The Roberson presentation said the testing is to confirm that front-end filters on such GPS devices allow GNSS reception and still let the devices work properly. And in cases when GPS performance still sees interference from terrestrial LTE despite such front-end filters, possible fixes include use of different augmentation signals that improve GPS accuracy, or different front-end filters, LightSquared said.

DirecTV drew up its own form rejection letter that would go to broadcasters requesting a market modification that isn't technically or economically feasible. In an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-71, DirecTV said the letter could go to requesting broadcasters as a form of a certification related to a given satellite company's spot beam coverage. The proposed letter says the satellite carrier has looked into such issues for the ZIP codes in question as estimated atmospheric effects, the amount of capacity already being used in the relevant spot beam, clear sky signal margin and estimated interference levels. "Based on this analysis, [Satellite Carrier] cannot provide service to [all/some/the following] zip codes associated with this request," the proposed denial letter said.

EchoStar plans to roughly double its satellite-based consumer broadband capacity with the launch of its Jupiter-97W satellite under construction now, the company said Tuesday. The company filed an application with the FCC International Bureau requesting approval of technical modifications for Jupiter-97W. The satellite, like its EchoStar XVII launched in 2011, will focus on broadband services in North America and South America, including Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and the U.S. Jupiter-97W will carry 150 Gbps capacity, the company said. Along with the Ka-band satellite, Hughes plans to set up as many as 22 gateway earth stations to establish a terrestrial connection to the Internet. The Papua New Guinea National Information and Communication Technology Authority is administering the launch. Jupiter-97W would be Hughes' third high-throughput Ka-band satellite.

Iridium Constellation and Globalstar continue to joust over spectrum, with Iridium both criticizing Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) broadband proposal and laying out its case for the FCC instead expanding the 1.6 GHz spectrum that the companies share, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in RM-11697. "Taken together, the pending Iridium and Globalstar requests are about the future" of big low earth orbit mobile satellite service, but while its sharing proposal will boost mobile satellite services growth, Globalstar's push for a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band "would materially diminish the satellite resources available to first responders, critical industry and consumers," Iridium said. Globalstar has been critical of Iridium's sharing push, saying Iridium has no need for the spectrum and raising red flags about signal interference (see 1505180036). "Iridium has no other option for securing additional spectrum" other than the 1.6 GHz band, Iridium said, saying existing Iridium/Globalstar spectrum sharing "has proven to be workable and free from interference to Globalstar." Globalstar had no comment Wednesday.

Fox News Headlines 24/7, a full-time satellite radio news channel, will launch this fall on SiriusXM, the satellite company and Fox News said Wednesday. The channel is part of a multiyear agreement between the two, and will be broadcast on SiriusXM Channel 115. SiriusXM already broadcasts audio simulcasts of cable channels Fox Business Network and Fox News on channels 113 and 114, respectively, as well as Fox News Talk radio programming on Channel 450.

DirecTV is "redlining" when customers in 11 small markets around the country can't get local programming, TVFreedom.org said Tuesday in a blog post. "Sitting on massive profits and facing no technological barriers preventing it from addressing this glaring service gap, DirecTV simply failed to invest in the infrastructure needed to deliver local-into-local TV service to rural customers in these local TV markets," said Rob Kenny, TVFreedom.org director-public affairs. The 11 markets are Alpena, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky; North Platte, Nebraska; Glendive, Montana; Helena, Montana; Presque Isle, Maine; Victoria, Texas; Casper/Riverton, Wyoming; Cheyenne, Wyoming/Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Grand Junction/Montrose, Colorado; and Ottumwa, Iowa/Kirksville, Missouri. The markets have become an issue in AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV, as the big four broadcast network associations raised the lack of local-into-local TV service last week in an ex parte filing in docket 14-90 (see 1506180017). In the blog post, Kenny said it "will certainly be disheartening" if the FCC failed to push DirecTV as a condition of the AT&T deal. "What would that say about DirecTV’s view of rural America?" he asked. DirecTV wouldn't comment Tuesday.

The GPS industry continues to voice worries about the growing demand for LTE-based services and the need to protect Global Navigation Satellite System and GPS receivers and services from signal interference. In an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 11-109, Deere, Garmin and Trimble Navigation said they met with FCC staff last week to highlight the protections needed for navigation devices vs. communications ones, and to make clear "that we remain committed to working ... to protect critical GNSS applications from interference while potentially exploring ways that currently underutilized spectrum in adjacent bands can be made more productive." A presentation to FCC staff said LTE band 24 sits closer to the GNSS "receive" band than the usual spectrum spacing for paired wireless broadband spectrum frequencies, meaning GNSS "is expected to tolerate what wireless systems cannot."

ViaSat has started work on ViaSat-3 as the company has been contracted to build the satellite, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing made Thursday. The Ka-band geostationary satellite "is intended to provide a range of communications services to both businesses and consumers," the company said. No estimated time frame of the launch was included in the application, but the company's ViaSat-2 is expected to launch in 2016.