SES and O3b are making the eighth-floor rounds to push proposed changes to FCC Part 2 and Part 25 rules. The companies in a docket 16-408 filing posted Friday recapped a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly where they made a case similar to one they did in ex parte meetings days earlier with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1706060021).

Correction: The FCC International Bureau approval Atlas Space Operation seeks is to do telemetry, tracking and command support for another company's low earth orbit satellite (see 1705300003).

Chairman Ajit Pai yet again slammed the FCC's Open-market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecom (Orbit) Act reporting to Congtess requirement as the agency issued its 18th annual status report on the privatization status of Inmarsat, Intelsat and New Skies Thursday. The agency received no outside comments. "There's no need to reinvent the wheel," Pai said in a short statement, repeating his oft-made argument (see 1606140039) that the reports outlived their usefulness. The latest report said it confirms past reports' findings that Intelsat and Inmarsat have successfully transitioned to privatized operations.

SES DTH Brasil wants to expand the direct-to-home (DTH) service reach of its SES-14 satellite. In an FCC International Bureau petition to modify its U.S. market access authority filed Tuesday, the company said SES-14 is scheduled to launch in Q1, and it asked for authority to serve additional DTH markets in Europe and Africa using its Ku-band capacity beyond the services the agency authorized earlier this year in the U.S., and between the U.S. and various European and western hemisphere nations. The company also asked for U.S. market access for a NASA-hosted payload, Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, for imaging of the planet's upper atmosphere.

Any Canadian-licensed commercial non-geostationary orbit broadcasting satellite service and fixed satellite service must be capable of providing uninterrupted, 24/7 service anywhere in Canada, said Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in an order Monday updating NGSO licensing rules. It said it will continue to require foreign-licensed NGSO systems seeking approval to operate in Canada to complete coordination with Canadian networks that have date priority, and coordination will be an ongoing condition of the approval to operate in Canada. It won't limit the number of licenses issued per frequency band for any NGSO systems. U.S. companies had commented on the proposed licensing rules changes (see 1704240026).

A new in-line event trigger should be between 2 and 5 degrees, and band segmentation should be the last recourse for dealing with such events, SES and O3b officials told aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to a docket 16-408 filing posted Monday. SES and O3b staff said geostationary operations shouldn't be co-primary with non-geostationary satellite orbit systems in 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands since that's the only spectrum where NGSO systems have primary status and NGSO operators relied on that when developing business plans and systems. The companies backed NGSO milestone rules that would require 33 percent of an authorized constellation be launched within six years of license grant, and 75 percent within nine years. They recommended that after milestones are satisfied, licensees should be required to keep at least 75 percent of their authorized constellation in orbit, with at least one operational satellite in each authorized orbital plane, or face FCC punitive actions.

The EchoStar XXI communications satellite is scheduled to launch Thursday from Kazakhstan, ILS Proton said in an advisory Friday. The S-band satellite is intended to provide mobile connectivity in Europe and will be at 10.25 degree east, it said.

AT&T reached tentative agreement with 17,000 wireline and DirecTV union workers in California and Nevada, said the company and the Communications Workers of America. “The agreement will be submitted to the union’s membership for a ratification vote in coming days,” AT&T said in a Friday news release. CWA said the proposed four-year agreement includes pay raises, increased job security, retirement benefits and affordable healthcare. The proposed contract is the first for the DirecTV workers. CWA is scheduling meetings to explain the contract, it said. The ratification vote will occur by mail, with results to be counted July 6, a CWA spokeswoman emailed Monday. Negotiations continue between AT&T and wireless workers from 36 states, AT&T and CWA spokespeople said. The wireless, wireline and DirecTV workers together went on a three-day strike last month (see 1705220028).

SiriusXM can't recover damages caused by its own wrongdoing when it told a telephone marketer there was an existing business relationship with someone now suing SiriusXM for marketing calls, third-party defendant Sykes Enterprises said in an answer (in Pacer) Wednesday. It replied to the Sirius' third-party complaint filed earlier last month. Kevin Pine, of Carlsbad, California, is one of the named plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint filed in February against SiriusXM. The company complaint May 1 said marketing vendors contractually promised to indemnify and hold it harmless from various claims including TCPA claims. Sykes said if it improperly called Pine, it was at SiriusXM's direction and it's not obligated to indemnify SiriusXM. Other third-party defendants include DialAmerica Marketing, ServiCom and Results Cos. SiriusXM outside counsel didn't comment Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton's denial of motions to compel arbitration in litigation alleging fraudulent direct broadcast satellite subscription terms was appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by defendants DirecTV and Lonstein Law Office (see here and here, in Pacer) this week. Doneyda Perez, a California beauty shop owner, alleged violations of the California Unfair Competition Law and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by DirecTV selling small businesses satellite pay-TV service under residential accounts and then threatening litigation, with Lonstein representing the company. Staton, of Santa Ana, California, said (in Pacer) May 1 DirecTV "short-circuited" the traditional procedure of providing a customer agreement.