Space Systems Loral (SSL) will build an earth-imaging satellite constellation for DigitalGlobe, it said in a news release Thursday. SSL said the WorldView Legion low earth orbit constellation will add high-resolution capacity for DigitalGlobe in some areas. SSL said the satellites will be built at its Palo Alto, California, manufacturing facility. It said Legion, combined with DigitalGlobe's existing WorldView satellites and its forthcoming Scout constellation, will be able to image some areas of the planet as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes. It said the first Legion satellite is expected to launch in 2020, and the constellation will replace the WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and GeoEye-1 satellites. SSL parent MacDonald Dettwiler is buying DigitalGlobe.
The Intelsat 35e satellite, the fourth in Intelsat's EpicNG high-throughput constellation, launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, the company said. It said the satellite will provide C- and Ku-band service for broadband, mobility, wireless infrastructure, government and media customers in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Intelsat said the customer list for the satellite includes eProcess, Etecsa, Inwi, Marlink, Orange, Sonatel, Speedcast and Tele Greenland, with it also including a tailored payload for Canal+'s Caribbean direct-to-home TV service. It said Intelsat 35e will orbit at 325.5 degrees east, replacing Intelsat 903, which will move to another orbital slot by year's end.
Globalstar "understands ... and confirms" it's subject to and will meet the emissions restrictions for the 1559-1610 MHz band that it previously agreed to with NTIA, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Monday. The Globalstar filing was in response to GPS Innovation Alliance saying the company should recommit to those ancillary terrestrial component base and user stations emissions agreements (see 1706260022). Globalstar said it will meet the limits and its terrestrial broadband operations won't affect GPS and Global Navigation Satellite System operations.
The numerous sports bars and individual DirecTV subscribers suing the MVPD and NFL over DirecTV's Sunday Ticket programming haven't shown the existence of a market where the defendants have the power to restrain trade or artificially inflate prices, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell of Los Angeles said in an order (in Pacer) Friday throwing out 27 consolidated lawsuits. She said the plaintiffs failed to show how DirecTV and the NFL restrained trade or have sufficient market power to artificially drive prices up, especially since the NFL offers free game broadcasts on CBS and Fox. DirecTV might be charging inflated prices for Sunday Ticket, but that by itself doesn't constitute harm to competition, she said. DirecTV's exclusive rights to the NFL programming also has pro-competitive aspects, the judge said, citing DirecTV packaging and promoting products "that result in greater fan access and NFL game exposure." The judge also rejected plaintiffs' arguments that NFL teams’ pooling of their broadcast rights violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act. She said rights to games are owned by multiple entities, including the NFL and whatever teams are taking part in a given game, so the multiple entities have to act collectively to broadcast the games. And she said the plaintiffs don't have standing to challenge the horizontal rights agreement between the NFL and the individual teams since they buy games from DirecTV and thus have standing to sue for damages only from the vertical agreement between DirecTV and the NFL. Defendants in the case were the individual NFL teams, the NFL, DirecTV, CBS, Fox, NBCUniversal and ESPN. In a statement, DirecTV owner AT&T said it "agree[s] with the court’s analysis and [is] pleased with the ruling." Plaintiffs' counsel didn't comment Monday.
SES is asking for FCC International Bureau approval to relocate AMC-6 as part of its long-term plan for restoring services disrupted by the AMC-9 anomaly -- a plan that also involves relocating AMC-4 (see 1706260002). In a bureau application Wednesday, SES asked for an OK to drift the satellite from 85 degrees west to 83 degrees west, where it would then operate in the C-, Ku- and extended Ku-bands. SES said much of the traffic that was carried by AMC-9 was transitioned to AMC-6. It also said that beyond supporting customers affected by the AMC-9 anomaly, the relocating will add extended Ku-band capacity at 83 degrees west.
Intelsat and Gilat Satellite Networks are jointly rolling out a solar-powered package for expanding 3G coverage in remote areas where terrestrial services aren't feasible. They said in a news release Thursday the Mobile Reach Solar 3G is aimed at mobile network operators and incorporates services from Intelsat's EpicNG high-throughput satellite network with Gilat's very small aperture terminal system for small-cell and cellular backhaul. They said it will provide 3G service over a 2.5 kilometer radius.
Private equity firm Finance Technology Leverage (FTL) and Space Systems Loral are partnering to create Space Infrastructure Services (SIS), an on-orbit satellite servicing company, SSL said in a news release Wednesday. It said SIS would be majority owned by FTL, with SSL having a minority stake. SSL also will design and build the satellite servicing vehicle under a $228 million SIS contract, it said. SES signed up to be SIS' first commercial customer for satellite refueling services, it said. SSL's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract to develop in-orbit satellite servicing technology was challenged in court by Orbital ATK, which also has a satellite servicing commercial operation (see 1702090045).
Intelsat is seeking a blanket license for earth stations aboard aircraft to operate up to 1,000 of each of two Ku-band ESAA terminals, the Rantec Airborne Satcom terminal and the Tecom KuStream 1500 terminal, said an FCC International Bureau application Monday. It said the terminals would be used for mobile broadband services to aircraft, and its proposed ESAA network would be part of its IntelsatOne Flex network using its wide-beam and high-throughput satellites and its terrestrial network.
Intelsat wants additional time to operate Intelsat 1R at its current 169.2 degrees east orbital slot and then to drift it to 157.1 degrees east, said FCC International Bureau filings Monday (see here and here). It wants 30 more days on its special temporary authority (STA) to operate at 169.2 degrees east, where it has been since June 12, to meet a potential service demand. And it asked for a 180-day STA starting Sept. 20 to drift to 157.1 degrees east and operate there. It said the drift should take about 45 days and is to be done to meet a potential service demand.
EchoStar wants to relocate EchoStar 12 and EchoStar 3, it said in FCC International Bureau applications (see here and here) Tuesday. It said the effort to relocate EchoStar 12 to 86.4 degrees west is to develop new services for the Colombian, maritime and other foreign markets. The satellite was launched in June 2003 and in recent years operated as an in-orbit spare at 61.2 degrees west, providing backup capacity for Dish Network, EchoStar said. It said that on or about July 3, it plans to move EchoStar 3 to 86.85 degrees west for three to four months and then begin maneuvers to deorbit it. EchoStar 3 was launched in 1998 and operates as an in-orbit spare at 61.8 degrees west, it said.