By early 2018, OneWeb expects the first satellites in its non-geostationary orbit constellation to be launched and operational, Senior Director-Regulatory Affairs Mariah Shuman told FCC International Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-408. It also said it expects to be able to provide broadband service to billions of unconnected people globally by 2025, with it covering much of the U.S. within its first two years of service -- an example being full coverage of Alaska in 2019.

Dish Network said it's the first major pay-TV provider to offer a Spanish-language customer service app. In a news release Thursday, it also said its DishLatino programming package is now offering a Spanish-language user interface for the Hopper DVR, Joey and Wally set-top boxes.

Satellite communications services company MVS USA expects to expand its presence in the government and military sectors with its buy of satellite services company ADCI, MVS said in a news release Thursday. It also said ADCI is the first of a series of acquisitions planned, and ADCI will function as a wholly owned subsidiary.

The separate FCC rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations, earth stations on vessels and earth stations aboard aircraft are "duplicative ... unnecessary and inefficient," Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday as commissioners approved 3-0 an NPRM on regulations governing earth stations in motion (ESIMs). The rulemaking isn't expected to face major pushback or notable controversy (see 1705090018). Pai said the rules harmonization and consolidation -- with the three regulatory categories of earth station rules being made into one -- should help the agency process applications more easily, while allowing blanket licensing in the conventional Ka-band increases opportunities for deployment. International Bureau Satellite Division lawyer Cindy Spiers said the current rules extend only to C- and Ku-band and were developed in separate but overlapping procedures. In a statement, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said he appreciated edits in the NPRM soliciting comments about whether ESIMs could potentially cause interference with incumbent satellite operations or future 28 GHz terrestrial operations. As the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 nears, he said he will pay attention to ESIM use in 27.5-29.GHz: "We must ensure that U.S. positions do not potentially dissuade investment and deployment in the 28 GHz band either domestically or internationally. Our continued commitment to the future success of the 28 GHz band must be clear to all."

A federal judge rejected Dish Network's bid for a new trial in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action lawsuit. In its March motion for a new trial, Dish argued the verdict ran against the clear weight of the evidence and the court made prejudicial evidentiary rulings in the trial. In a text order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles of Greensboro, North Carolina, rejected that motion and a related motion for judgment. Dish argued it couldn't be held legally responsible for phone calls made by an outside contractor to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry since the calls to class members violated Dish's express instructions. Eagles' ruling didn't include an opinion. Dish didn't comment Wednesday.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency never disputes that its contract with Space Systems Loral (SSL) violates the national space policy (NSP), and instead is effectively taking the position it can act without oversight, Orbital ATK said in an opposition (in Pacer) filed Monday. It responded to a DARPA motion to dismiss (see 1704120014) Orbital ATK's lawsuit claiming the SSL contract for development of technology for servicing in-orbit geosynchronous satellites unfairly competes with commercial space activity. The NSP, as an executive order, "has the force of law" and gives the court a standard to apply to DARPA's conduct, Orbital ATK said. DARPA counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Power flux density (PFD) limit changes aren't needed for satellite operations to allow spectrum sharing with upper microwave flexible use service (UMFUS) systems in the 39 GHz band, Boeing said. A docket 14-177 ex parte filing Tuesday said the FCC instead needs only to define conditions under which satellites could increase their transmit PFD limits to compensate for rain fade and to adopt equivalent PFD (EPFD) limits for restricting downlink transmissions. That EPFD approach might require operators of big nongeostationary and geostationary constellations in the same spectrum to sometimes use transmit PFD limits below the current requirements or to limit the number of satellites radiating toward the same ground point, it said. But the EPFD approach would ensure aggregate emissions of satellites in the 39 GHz band wouldn't exceed the power levels needed to protect UMFUS receivers, it said. EPFD limits would require the identification and use of reference UMFUS receive antenna patterns, it said, saying it did a variety of demonstrations showing broadband satellite systems operating in the 39 GHz band without harmful interference to UMFUS systems. The ex parte recapped a meeting between Boeing representatives including Global Broadband Vice President Bruce Chesley and Wireless and International bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology staffers.

Requiring all non-geostationary satellite operators in Canada to provide complete coverage of the country as a condition for market access would mean fewer competing NGSO services available for Canadians. That was the argument raised by U.S. satellite operators in replies posted Friday by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada as it looks at a rewrite of NGSO rules (see 1704240026). Boeing said there's broad agreement that ISED shouldn't limit the number of licensed systems, require third-party arbitration of coordination disputes or make foreign NGSOs complete international coordination before being authorized for Canada, but there's broad disagreement on coordination requirements and Canadian coverage and capacity requirements. ISED might want to impose conditions on Canadian-licensed NGSOs on direction and control of the systems, but there's no valid argument for concluding Canadians won't see satellite service without Canadian coverage and capacity reservation requirements, it said. O3b said some proposals, such as requiring foreign-licensed NGSOs coordinate with Canadian-licensed systems before getting access to the Canadian market, could create an imbalanced competitive playing field. It advocated that ISED adopt in-line interference rules similar to the FCC's, with consequences such as spectrum splitting for two operators unable to coordinate as a means of encouraging coordination in good faith. ViaSat said requiring foreign-licensed NGSOs to complete coordination with Canadian satellite operators gives those Canadian operators the incentive and opportunity "to control the timing and pace of market entry by their competitors." ViaSat backed a proposal by a coalition of Canadian satellite operators that coordination be required, but requests for Canadian landing rights not be denied or delayed if a foreign-licensed operator has ITU date priority or is facing delays in reaching a timely coordination arrangement. OneWeb said ISED's proposed milestone requirement, that large NGSO systems have a third of their constellations up by year six after being licensed and fully deployed by year nine, would result in spectrum warehousing and give a milestone extension to already authorized NGSO systems.

Garmin bought ActiveCaptain, a developer of crowdsourced content for boaters, the GPS company announced Thursday. Karen and Jeffrey Siegel, founders and sole employees, will become Garmin employees, the buyer said.

Lowering its planned non-geostationary orbit satellite constellation from a 1,200 kilometer orbital height to 1,030-1,082 kilometer will mean double the number of avoidance maneuvers, to 3.3 per satellite per year, because of increased orbital debris at that altitude, Boeing said in an FCC International Bureau letter posted Wednesday. It responded to a bureau request in April for additional technical details (see 1704120021). Boeing said those additional maneuvers still would be well within each satellite's fuel allocation. It said due to built-in redundancies in the satellites' deorbit subsystems, likelihood of the inability to perform avoidance procedures would be less than 1 percent. Even at a 1 percent failure rate among its planned 2,956 satellites, the probability of impact with any of the failed vehicles is fewer than 0.00268 per year, it said. Boeing earlier this year said it planned to move its constellation, after talks with OneWeb, which has an NGSO constellation planned for roughly the same altitude (see 1703020036).