Attempts at amending non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications pending before the FCC could result in delay and uncertainty in the licensing process and "threaten the integrity" of the processing round regime, SpaceX said (here and here) in meetings with International Bureau staffers and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. It said the agency has clear rules against manipulating processing rounds. SpaceX didn't name any particular amendments but said the agency in the past acted against potential spectrum warehousing or speculation by prohibiting a party having an attributable interest in more than one NGSO system in a band and ensuring pending applications for which wholesale changes are proposed are relegated to a later processing round. Boeing has argued its attempt to transfer its NGSO application to OneWeb Chairman Greg Wyler doesn't violate those NGSO attributable interest rules (see 1801020007).

Trimble remains open to working with the FCC on regulatory issues for Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service, it said in a docket 12-340 ex parte filing posted Thursday on meetings with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and International Bureau staff. Trimble backs an agency waiver to let U.S.-based devices receive Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System signals and repeated its concerns free high-accuracy service to be provided as part of Galileo's GNSS service could disrupt the commercial market (see 1712220034).

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology granted special temporary authority to Globalstar and Harris for an experimental cubesat mission. According to approvals (see here and here) granted Friday, Harris will do S-band downlinks using a Globalstar GSP-1700 duplex transmitter. Harris said the point of the mission is assessing radiation mitigation techniques and the performance of a broad-bandwidth deployable antenna specifically designed for cubesats and the effective coverage of Harris' downlink, uplink and payload experiment data communications. Globalstar said the cubesat mission will be about six months, and Harris will notify the FCC of the dates of the operation once established.

Dish Network bought connected parking technology company ParkiFi, specializing in IoT-enabled wireless parking sensors, and will continue to operate under that brand, Dish said Thursday. Dish noted plans to build its own national narrowband IoT network by early 2020 (see 1703080026).

Boeing wants to add more inter-satellite links (ISL) to its planned V-band constellation. In an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday, it sought authorization for ISLs in the 65-71 GHz band. Those would be atop the ISLs pending authorization in the 47.2-50.2 GHz and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands (see 1703020036), it said. The 65-71 GHz band is allocated on a primary basis for geostationary and non-geostationary orbit ISL transmissions, and Boeing said it wants to use the ISLs in the band for transmissions among its proposed low earth orbit satellites. The company said it needs the 65-71 GHz spectrum because of uncertainty about whether it can coordinate sufficient access to V- and Ka-band frequencies for ISL transmissions using just its previously requested ISL spectrum.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals and the satellites themselves are vulnerable to "steadily evolving" threats of accidental and deliberate interference and cyberattack, the U.K. Government Office of Science reported Tuesday. Noting heavy and growing reliance on GNSS, it said the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Ofcom should keep addressing interference risks to GNSS-dependent users when allocating spectrum to new services and applications. It said critical national infrastructure operators should make provisions for the loss of GNSS by using GNSS-independent back-up systems.

SpaceWorks predicts 263 nano/microsatellites will be launched into orbit this year, down slightly from the record 300-plus that went up in 2017, it said in a report Tuesday. The 2017 numbers were a 205 percent increase over 2016, it said, saying the total number of such smallsats launched over the next five years will be close to 2,600. It said commercial operators likely will account for more than 70 percent of those nano/microsatellites. It said satcom applications, which were 4 percent of nano/microsatellites launched between 2013 and 2017, are expected to be 22 percent of those launched between now and 2022. SpaceWorks defined nano/microsatellites as in the 1 to 100 kilogram range.

Comments for the next Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications Act report are due March 1, replies April 16, said an FCC International Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 18-18. The bureau said it's required by the Orbit Act to report annually to the House Commerce and International Relations and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees. Chairman Ajit Pai said the requirement of annually reporting on the privatization status of long-since privatized Inmarsat and Intelsat is pointless (see 1706080064 and 1506100062).

The satellite industry remains split over whether the FCC should end its domestic converge requirement for non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service (FSS) systems. In comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-408, SpaceX and Boeing kept up their defense of eliminating the requirement. SpaceX said different space architectures are obviating the need to proscribe such coverage. That it and OneWeb plan to cover the entire U.S. means other operators should be allowed to go with different business models addressing different customer needs, SpaceX said. Boeing said Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) is wrong to think NGSO operators lack commercial incentive to provide broadband access there (see 1801080015), since rural and remote connectivity is one of the chief business cases for NGSO constellations. It said the polar, near-polar or highly elliptical orbits being proposed by OneWeb, Telesat Canada, LeoSat, Kepler Communications, Theia and Space Norway would mean good coverage of high latitude areas such as Alaska and the Arctic. Boeing said it disagreed that the FCC should keep the domestic coverage requirement and not give waivers to operators of mega constellations, since there's no clear line determining when too many satellites means not meriting a waiver. SES/O3b also has pushed for ending the domestic coverage requirement (see 1801300008). However, in joint comments in the docket posted Tuesday, Hughes, Intelsat and OneWeb said there aren't any compelling rationales for eliminating the requirement. They said the supposed additional flexibility from such a rule change would be at the expense of rural consumers, and that the agency is willing to grant waivers to the requirement when justified means there's no reason to change the rule.

The in-orbit satellite servicing market likely will be an opportunity for more than $3 billion in revenue over the next 10 years, with life-extension services making up most of that, Northern Sky Research said Tuesday. NSR said until in-orbit demonstrations prove the technology works, there will be "a reasonable level of apprehension" in the satellite community. It said in-orbit servicing opportunities in the near term include deorbiting and salvage operations, while such opportunities as satellite repair and alteration could be further out.