The OneWeb/Intelsat deal is off, with Intelsat bondholders not fans of the terms of the senior unsecured note exchanges between the two companies, Intelsat said in a news release Thursday: It and OneWeb will continue jointly developing services using Intelsat's geosynchronous and OneWeb's low earth orbit constellations and to act as a SoftBank sub-distributor. The transaction was announced earlier this year (see 1702280057). FCC members are tentatively to vote at their June 22 meeting on OneWeb's requested U.S. market access for its 720-satellite constellation (see 1706010049).

Hytera agreed to pay $69 million for Norsat, up from the $62 million announced earlier this year (see 1703270008). In a news release Wednesday, Norsat said the deal still requires approval of its shareholders and regulatory signoffs, and is expected to close in Q3.

Maritime demand will drive an expected twelvefold increase in Arctic and Antarctic commercial mobility capacity revenue 2015-25, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Tuesday. NSR said the polar regions are niche markets, but lack of competition and connectivity needs mean they're growth opportunities. It said those with high-throughput satellite capacity "will be the largest winners," with the polar regions representing an estimated $116 million in HTS revenue by 2025. It said low earth orbit HTS -- with its lower capacity costs and coverage better suited for higher latitudes -- could have growing demand through government-backed universal service obligation programs. The major barrier to a big market presence is the lack of significant populations in the regions, NSR said.

Atlas Space Operations plans to track a low earth orbit satellite, Athena, for another company. In an FCC International Bureau earth station authorization application Monday, the Michigan-based satellite operations and control services company said Athena would pass over the California earth station site up to seven times a day and the earth station would operate in the 2025-2100 MHz band.

Comments or petitions to deny the 10 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) license applications and U.S. market access petitions filed in November (see 1611160010) are due June 26, the FCC International Bureau said in a public notice Friday. Responses and oppositions are due July 7, with replies to oppositions due July 14. The bureau also set a July 26 deadline for additional applications and petitions for declaratory ruling for NGSO-like operations in the 12.75-13.25 GHz, 13.85-14 GHz, 18.6-18.8 GHz, 19.3-20.2 GHz and 29.1-29.5 GHz bands. It said applications and petitions received by then will be considered together with the lead applications already filed by SpaceX, Space Norway, Karousel, Boeing, Telesat Canada, LeoSat, O3b, Audacy, ViaSat and Theia Holdings for those frequency bands, but applications received afterward might not be entitled to shared use.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell met last week with Chairman Ajit Pai to push for the agency to move on its 2013 NPRM about allocating spectrum for commercial space launches. In an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-115, SpaceX said such an allocation would help streamline launch spectrum licensing. The company has met twice with Pai about launch spectrum allocations (see 1703140048). The company also backed the pending NPRM on the update to Part 2 and 25 rules.

Intelsat hopes to launch its Galaxy 14R satellite to replace Galaxy 14 in Q4 2019, with its Galaxy 15R satellite to replace Galaxy 15 to follow in Q2 2022, it said in FCC International Bureau applications (see here and here) Wednesday. Galaxy 14 operates at 125 degrees west, as would 14R, it said. Intelsat also said 14R would operate in 14's C-band frequencies plus extended C-, Ku- and Ka-band frequencies not used by 14. The C-band Galaxy 15 operates at 133 degrees west, as would 15R, it said, saying Galaxy 15R would include Ku-band frequencies not used by 15.

The deadline for comments about or petitions to deny Globalstar's request for modification of its satellite and earth station licenses to implement its planned ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) service is June 23, the FCC International Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. Responses and oppositions to petitions are due July 3, and replies to oppositions July 11, it said. The bureau said Globalstar's ATC service base stations and user terminals will operate in the 2483.5-2495 MHz band.

Each month that the FCC takes in deciding on Ligado's pending petitions for its proposed terrestrial low-power broadband service leads to $100 million to $2 billion lost in consumer value, former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said in an economic analysis partially underwritten by the company. The analysis, submitted by Ligado and to be posted in docket 11-109, said the public benefits of the twin Ligado petitions' approval would be clarification and enhancement of property rights in spectrum, help in resolving interference disputes, demonstration of "continued American leadership in spectrum policy," and other benefits: There are "few if any" public objections to the plan, and benefits exceed the costs, it said.

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.