The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should reject bank BIU’s legal challenge of the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s dismissal of satellite company Spectrum Five’s complaint against Intelsat (see 2306280034) because BIU didn’t first appeal the bureau order to the full commission, said the FCC in a motion Monday. The Enforcement Bureau dismissed the complaint after Spectrum Five withdrew it, but BIU argued at the time that the bank had sole authority to withdraw the petition. The D.C. Circuit has jurisdiction over FCC final orders only, not the orders of subordinate bureaus, the agency said. After BIU told the FCC Spectrum Five didn’t have the authority to withdraw, the EB sent a letter of inquiry to Spectrum Five, but a response isn’t due until Aug. 25 (see 2308140041). “BIU has failed to exhaust administrative remedies. Thus, this Court lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of the petition and should dismiss,” the FCC said.
Atlas Capital Partners provided $100 million in financing to direct-to-device satellite startup AST SpaceMobiile, Atlas said Tuesday. The financing is part of a $179 million package of cash and liquidity the company announced Monday. AST Chief Strategy Officer Scott Wisniewski said the financing is intended to fund the manufacturing and launch of additional BlueBird satellites beyond its first five commercial satellites, which are expected to launch in Q1 2024.
Spectrum Five Manager David Wilson and outside counsel have until Aug. 25 to respond to allegations by financier BIU that Wilson had no right to drop the company's complaint against Intelsat (see 2306280034), per a letter last week from the FCC Office of General Counsel (docket 20-399). Wilson didn't comment Monday.
The ITU's existing equivalent power flux density limits haven't prevented non-geostationary orbit satellite operators from deploying new services or stifled innovation, and there's no reason to review the EPFD limits at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, SES Manager-Spectrum Management and Development Karl Jonsson blogged Friday. Instead, a WRC-27 review of EPFD limits would put existing geostationary services at risk of more interference, he said. "Upholding these limits ensures a stable, level playing field, supports continued innovation, and propels the satellite industry into an exciting future of growth and boundless possibilities," Jonsson said.
Telesat has raised the money needed for its planned, 198-satellite Lightspeed low earth orbit satellite constellation, it said Friday. The company said financing is a combination of Telesat's own equity contribution, some vendor financing and funding commitments from its Canadian federal and provincial government partners. It said it signed a contract with MDA to produce the satellites, with satellite launches scheduled to start in mid-2026. Telesat said polar and global services should begin in late 2027.
Operational problems with Viasat's ViaSat-3 Americas satellite (see 2307130003) will likely affect the company's FY 2025, slowing growth, the company told analysts Wednesday. It said the next ViaSat-3 satellite scheduled for launch has the same antenna as the cause of the anomaly on ViaSat-3 Americas, and it's looking into corrective actions. CEO Mark Dankberg said the company is still assessing what capacity the satellite can provide, if any.
Satellite communications company Astranis plans to launch its UtilitySat, a multi-mission geostationary orbit satellite, by year's end, CEO John Gedmark posted Wednesday on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. He said the UtiltySat launch will be part of a Falcon 9 mission that also will put up a pair of communications satellites for in-flight connectivity and one for Peru. UtilitySat will be "the Swiss Army Knife of satellites," capable of multiple broadband connectivity missions using the Ku, Ka, and Q/V bands, said Gedmark. He said it plans to launch numerous UtilitySats in coming years, with use cases including bridge capacity for a customer waiting for a dedicated satellite, as an on-orbit spare, or as an extra, or for providing surge capacity. "We see a future where customers will be able to call up extra capacity on demand to augment their existing capacity needs," he said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau validated SES' certification that it completed its lower C-band Phase II accelerated relocation (see 2307110025), per an order Wednesday. The validation starts the process for the licensees for the 3.7-4 GHz band paying their portion of the Phase II accelerated relocation payments. The agency validated certifications by Telesat, Eutelsat and Embratel last month (see 2306300038).
As the FCC considers using a degraded throughput threshold for spectrum sharing among non-geostationary orbit satellite constellations, the result should be maximum use of the spectrum even through "productive interference" where the cost of mitigation overprotects some users, ITIF said Monday in docket 21-456. It also warned of the degraded throughput disincentivizing investments in better receivers, creating a "hecklers' veto," and urged the agency to adopt standardized antenna patterns that will receive FCC protection. That would prevent poorly performing receivers being a basis for claiming high degraded throughput, it said. And it urged an aggregate threshold that's parceled out among systems in later processing rounds that actually deploy.
Globalstar seeks FCC authorization to launch and operate up to 26 replacement low earth satellites. In a Space Bureau application posted Monday, it said the planned 2025 launch would replenish its first-generation HIBLEO-4 system. It said the replenishment would sustain its mobile satellite services including the SOS emergency messaging service it offers to Apple's iPhone 14s.