Intelsat and Intel are pushing their joint plan for clearing some C-band for 5G with Chairman Ajit Pai's staff. The two in a docket 17-183 ex parte filing posted Monday recapped a meeting with a Pai aide in which the companies asked the agency to act on an NPRM suggesting the Intelsat/Intel sharing framework the two put forth in October (see 1710020047). They "stand ready" to work on hammering out implementation details.
Dish Network and Lilly Broadcasting signed a multiyear carriage deal for the broadcaster's channels in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and markets in Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii, Dish said Thursday. Terms weren't disclosed. Carriage talks between the two resulted in a blackout in October (see 1710030066).
The Trump White House, like the Obama White House, seems particularly focused on enabling commercial space operations, and the resurrected National Space Council (see 1710050042) could provide a route for getting regulatory agency consensus on tackling such issues as orbital debris, said Moon Express Vice President-Government Affairs Ben Roberts in a Policy Studies Organization talk Friday. In most administrations, the president is making only the toughest decisions, and the key to space policy thus comes in choosing the staffers and advisers who formulate most of the policy, said Roberts, who most recently was in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration. But Planetary Society Space Policy Adviser Jason Callahan said those staffing decisions aren't enough because of the competing interests, like Congress, requiring that the president have ongoing engagement. Callahan said that has been a space policy failure in the U.S. for years, with presidents setting a space policy goal and then moving on to other issues and that policy going nowhere. The burgeoning commercial space industry is changing that dynamic, making the transition from one presidential administration to another less dramatic, said Commercial Spaceflight Federation Director Tommy Sanford: "The Elons and the Jeffs ... they're continuing to do their thing regardless of who is in office," referring to Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, founder of spaceflight company Blue Origin. The most dramatic space activity in coming years will be among commercial operators, and the Trump administration has shown an inclination to partner with them, Sanford said. Added Roberts, the Trump White House seems likely to approach civil space efforts in a coalition with the private sector. The space industry's best resource currently "is a bunch of nerdy billionaires," he said. Commercial space companies have the biggest incentives to deal with orbital debris, Sanford said, saying the federal government is a huge generator of debris and often breaks its own 25-year deorbiting rule. A big challenge to addressing orbital debris is having the federal government follow its own rules, he said. Added Callahan, governments likely will look for -- and use -- effective commercial solutions to debris when they emerge.
Whether the FCC should enforce orbital debris requirements on commercial and private satellites, since its mission has little to do with space, is a big open question in orbital debris mitigation policy, said Aerospace Corp.'s Center for Space Policy and Strategy (CSPS) in a white paper Thursday. The paper covers various agencies' space regulations and is aimed at nontraditional missions seeking regulatory preapproval. CSPS also said there has been confusion among experimental and federally connected missions about whether to go through the FCC or NTIA for spectrum access.
Reasonable reading of Dish Network's employee arbitration agreement would find it restricts employees' rights to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB said in a docket 17-60368 appellee brief (in Pacer) filed Friday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dish is appealing an April NLRB order that its arbitration agreement's confidentiality provision violates the National Labor Relations Act (see 1709250001). The NLRB in its brief also said Dish's desire to protect personal information that comes up in an arbitration proceeding could be handled with a narrower rule than its requirement everything in those proceedings be confidential. And it said Dish's claim it wanted to prevent rumors didn't outweigh the interference with a disciplined employee's right to discuss that discipline. Dish didn't comment Friday.
ViaSat consolidated all its sub-brands, such as Exede and Yonder, into the ViaSat master brand, in a rebranding campaign, it said Thursday. It rolled out a new logo. Expanding into consumer, aviation and maritime markets, "There is greater value for us to present one unified brand," said CEO Mark Dankberg.
Since KMTP-TV San Francisco sent its must-carry election via priority express mail instead of the certified mail specified in FCC rules, the carriage complaint filed by licensee Minority TV Project should be dismissed, Dish Network said in a docket 17-313 response posted Thursday. It said the KMTP complaint was premature since the broadcaster hasn't written Dish indicating why it believes the company isn't living up to its carriage obligations, as FCC rules mandate. Station owner Minority TV Project, in its complaint earlier this month, said Dish was following a "hyper-technical" reading of the rules regarding mailing (see 1711130057). Counsel for KMTP didn't comment.
The EchoStar/Dish Network petition for writ of certiorari in its fight with Florida over its communications services tax, along with related briefs, will be distributed to Supreme Court justices Jan. 5, the docket said Wednesday. Dish is appealing a Florida Supreme Court decision in April rejecting a 2005 lawsuit alleging the tax violates the Commerce Clause by charging a higher rate on direct broadcast satellite than on cable TV (see 1711280001).
The EchoStar 105/SES-11 satellite is in its 105 degree west orbital slot and available for commercial service, EchoStar said Wednesday. The Ku- and C-band satellite was launched Oct. 11 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it said.
Orbital ATK's shareholders OK'd Northrup Grumman's proposed buy of the satellite company, Northrup Grumman said Wednesday. It said it expects the deal to close before Q3, after getting regulatory approvals. The $9.2 billion sale isn't considered likely to face significant regulatory concerns (see 1709180041).