Growing demand for in-flight connectivity could affect how both airlines and satellite operators view obsolescence, industry insiders said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event Thursday. Moves to wider channels and increased interest in the V- and Q-band mean obsolescence for installed in-flight connectivity systems will come sooner from changing technology than from problems with parts, said Bill Milroy, chief technology officer at antenna maker ThinKom. ViaSat Vice President-Space and Satellite Broadband Richard VanderMeulen said satellite operators are trying to provide LTE-like service today and expect to have to provide 5G-level service in the near future, and airlines ultimately will have to decide whether to prioritize the customer experience or eking out extra life of aircraft. As in-flight connectivity offerings follow the same 4G-to-5G trend of higher speed and capacity, "we're going to have to change our expectations about obsolescence," said Inmarsat Vice President-Enterprise Tim Johnson. SmartSky Networks Vice President-Digital Aviation Bruce Holmes said that beyond in-flight connectivity, an increased number of worldwide broadband networks will lead to "the Holy Grail of air space management" -- pre-computed flight plans avoiding any conflicts of flight paths and maximizing fuel and time efficiency. VanderMeulen said growth of those global networks could also lead to the point where airline passengers have choices of multiple data providers on a flight. He said the Department of Homeland Security laptop ban will have minimal effect on in-flight connectivity demand, since phones are the leading consumers of data on flights. Johnson expects carriers disproportionately affected by such a ban would find work-around for high-value customers, like providing tablets. Asked about typical per-customer connection speeds on a flight, operators largely demurred, saying the focus was on optimized service. Milroy said ThinKom often sees spectral efficiency that can work out to 250 Mbps per aircraft. While for many operators that averages out to 150-200 Kbps per passenger, "of course that number is going up and up," he said. Euroconsult earlier this month predicted more than 17,000 commercial aircraft will offer in-flight connectivity by 2021, up from 6,500 in 2016 and that as of the start of the year, more than 80 airlines installed or committed to in-flight connectivity.
Prompted in part by last week's manhandling of a reporter at an FCC meeting, the National Press Club told us Thursday it plans to organize "a summit" among news, public affairs and security interests to discuss best practices or possible new models for media access to government agencies. "We have had too many of these incidents happen," said NPC Journalism Institute Freedom Fellow Kathy Kiely. "Having a conversation might be helpful" in balancing security concerns with maximizing openness, she said. Kiely said the FCC has been invited to participate. The agency didn't comment.
The solution to increasingly congested Wi-Fi networks in dense urban areas lies primarily in middle-band spectrum, particularly in the 5.9 GHz band and potentially the 6 GHz band, said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Ed Figueroa Wednesday. Having 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels is paramount, but that kind of channelization is tough to find in low bands, while high-frequency bands carry propagation limitations, he said at a Microsoft/New America’s Wireless Future Project panel.
The U.S. has "an authorization gap" for new outer space activities like in-orbit satellite servicing and asteroid mining, which creates uncertainty for industry, Matthew Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law co-director-Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program, told the Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee Tuesday. Testimony involved the possible regulatory regimes of such new activities, and the possible need to revisit the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. OST Article VI, which makes nations responsible for oversight of space activities that originate from individual countries, "has been an issue," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Numerous questions involved U.S. obligations under Article VI. Satellite lawyer Jim Dunstan of Mobius Legal Group said nothing is to be gained by reopening the treaty regime, which would let unfriendly nations layer on regulatory burdens. Schaefer said fear of the difficulties of OST compliance is unwarranted, since the treaty's obligations are minimally burdensome, but the U.S. not respecting its OST obligations leads to such potential consequences as foreign governments taking away markets and customers from U.S. space businesses. Space lawyer Laura Montgomery of Ground Based Space Matters said the U.S. isn't obligated to regulate all new outer space activities, and it's a misconception Article VI "makes the United States regulate either any particular activity or all activities of U.S. citizens in outer space." She said Congress should prohibit any regulatory agency from denying a U.S. entity from operating based on Article VI considerations. Schaefer said if the U.S. starts legislating in the area of Article VI, some countries will impose the U.S. interpretation for matters of their own national interest, and it would lead to more nations inspired to adopt commercially friendly interpretations. He recommended Congress act to limit the national security barrier to new space activities as much as possible. Many said the U.S. has an effective existing regulatory framework to deal with space debris from such new space industries, but a consolidation and harmonization of the debris mitigation rules required by different agencies would be useful. Since property rights are a good incentive to investment, the U.S.needs to figure out a way to recognize property rights extraterrestrially, and Article II allows that, Montgomery said. Dunstan disagreed, saying OST doesn't allow the U.S. to recognize private property rights. Schaefer said it might be better to proceed on a case-by-case basis for property right disagreements, leaving the discretion in the executive branch rather than doing a rewrite of Article II.
Security measures and responses at the FCC's Thursday meeting, including less seating than usual and the "manhandling" of a reporter after the meeting, are under fire, with questions of whether they may have been aimed at stifling any uproar about the net neutrality vote -- something the FCC denies. "This is very chilling and very intimidating to the public, whether you're for the rules or against," said former Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who attributed the problems to "very heavy-handed security." The National Press Club (NPC) described as "completely unacceptable" an incident in which it said John Donnelly of CQ Roll Call was pushed into and held against a wall by security using their backs when he was trying to talk to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and then was forced to leave the building.
The separate FCC rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations, earth stations on vessels and earth stations aboard aircraft are "duplicative ... unnecessary and inefficient," Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday as commissioners approved 3-0 an NPRM on regulations governing earth stations in motion (ESIMs). The rulemaking isn't expected to face major pushback or notable controversy (see 1705090018). Pai said the rules harmonization and consolidation -- with the three regulatory categories of earth station rules being made into one -- should help the agency process applications more easily, while allowing blanket licensing in the conventional Ka-band increases opportunities for deployment. International Bureau Satellite Division lawyer Cindy Spiers said the current rules extend only to C- and Ku-band and were developed in separate but overlapping procedures. In a statement, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said he appreciated edits in the NPRM soliciting comments about whether ESIMs could potentially cause interference with incumbent satellite operations or future 28 GHz terrestrial operations. As the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 nears, he said he will pay attention to ESIM use in 27.5-29.GHz: "We must ensure that U.S. positions do not potentially dissuade investment and deployment in the 28 GHz band either domestically or internationally. Our continued commitment to the future success of the 28 GHz band must be clear to all."
The acceleration of cord-cutting and cord-nevering is due more to costs than virtual MVPD growth, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Wednesday at a MoffettNathanson event. He said subscriber losses over the past five years are at the margins, with the bulk of customers sticking with pay-TV packages. Programmers increasingly are interested in "rekindl[ing] an affiliation" instead of just a transactional relationship, with Charter helping them sell their products, Rutledge said. He said in coming years, the cost trajectory for content "is marginally going to change to our benefit, but not much. On the edges, there's a lot of pressure on the price for content companies."
EstrellaTV's sizable white area distribution is a sign the network is home to largely undesirable programming, Comcast argued in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers. EstrellaTV parent Liberman Broadcasting countered it's a deliberate strategy. The companies Tuesday in docket 16-121 (see here and here) recapped a joint meeting with the FCC on Liberman's 2016 unsuccessful carriage complaint (see 1604080013) and current petition to reconsider (see 1609260049). Finding the EstrellaTV complaint gives it standing in white areas, even if the Media Bureau affirmed its dismissal order, would be valuable, Liberman said. It said in a proceeding before an administrative law judge it would ask that the FCC order Comcast to carry EstrellaTV on similar terms to Comcast-owned Telemundo. Liberman said nothing in the 2016 order disqualifies EstrellaTV from qualifying as a video programming vendor (VPV) under Section 616 of the Communications Act, and determining Liberman isn't a VPV would take away a tool to prevent unlawful MVPD behavior. It said the plain language of the Communications Act, FCC precedent and that EstrellaTV is distributed the same way cable network feeds are point to it qualifying as a VPV. It also argued it's similarly situated to Telemundo, with both having the same target audience and common advertisers. Yet Comcast distributes Telemundo in all of the Telemundo owned-and-operated stations and affiliate markets it serves, but carries EstrellaTV in only three EstrellaTV O&O markets, Liberman said. Comcast said the bureau should affirm its August order finding EstrellaTV isn't a VPV and lacks standing to file a program carriage complaint. It said the bureau should deny EstrellaTV's petition for recon. Comcast argued the record isn't established enough to rule whether EstrellaTV is a VPV with respect to its white area feed. It said if EstrellaTV wants to pursue that line of complaint, it should file a new one, but when looking at the existing record, EstrellaTV has no basis to assert it's a VPV for purposes of its white area feed. It said stations are EstrellaTV's primary distribution mode, so a white area feed -- serving areas outside broadcast signal range -- makes no sense. The cable firm said the Liberman demand for compensation for the white area feed "is out of step with how it is treated in the broader marketplace," since there's no evidence it gets such license fees from other MVPDs. Meeting participants were Comcast representatives including Senior Vice President-Legal Regulatory Affairs Frank Buono, Liberman representatives including CEO Lenard Liberman, and Media Bureau and Office of the General Counsel staffers.
FCC Electronic Comment Filing System woes that the agency says stem from a distributed denial-of-service attack point to necessary overhauls to the comment system, including more capacity, more protections and potentially a move to Regulations.gov, experts tell us. Such a move isn't likely in the foreseeable future. The FCC should release data on the ECFS issues it experienced earlier this month to definitively prove they were caused by DDoS attacks, experts said. The FCC says multiple DDoS incidents came amid an onslaught of comments on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposed revised net neutrality rules (see 1705080042, 1705090063 and 1705100062).
Given operational problems in recent days with the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (see 1705120052), groups opposed to a net neutrality rules rollback say the agency should delay its planned Thursday vote on the NPRM. The agency has no plans to do so. "No consideration is being given to delaying the vote," the agency emailed us. "If the Restoring Internet Freedom Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is adopted on Thursday, there will be three months for the public to comment on the Commission’s proposal. We appreciate the input we have received on the Chairman’s draft and look forward to further public participation in this process."