Remote sensing company Astro Digital US (AD) hopes to launch as many as 100 satellites over a 15-year span, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Monday. In its application for authority to launch and operate an earth-exploration satellite service system, AD said the low earth orbit Landmapper constellation will never exceed 30 satellites at any given time -- 10 broad-area coverage satellites and 20 high-definition satellites -- with each satellite having a lifespan of roughly five years. AD -- formerly Aquila Space -- said it applied for a license with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to operate the Landmapper constellation and received a NOAA license for the broad-area coverage part of the system and expects to have the remainder licensed by the end of Q2. It expects to launch the first two broad-area coverage satellites at the end of Q2, with the third and fourth going up later this year.

Satellite communications could take advantage of relaxed net neutrality rules to target end-users seeking ISP alternatives, Northern Sky Research's Lluc Palerm-Serra said in an NSR blog post. NSR said one potential of 5G is the range of applications that will come through network segmentation, but first there needs to be some revision of net neutrality rules because different use cases that need to coexist on the same networks -- like IoT, connected cars and first responder communications -- often have different priority requirements. Smarter networks will benefit satcom, which "can’t compete on brute force (capacity and pricing) against ground networks," NSR said, saying relaxing rules on cellular backhaul could particularly benefit satcom. It said any net neutrality deregulation that leads to increased efforts to boost ISP competition as a means of safeguarding end-users from unfair data management policies also could benefit satcom.

A low-power IoT network doesn't seem desirable or lucrative for Dish Network (see 1705010041), and while the company could meet its FCC buildout requirements with a $4 billion "minimalist Potemkin network," any network build would denote the company either not finding a good spectrum buyer or CEO Charlie Ergen not wanting to sell, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors Tuesday. Either signal "would be catastrophic for Dish shareholders," it said. If the company goes the building route, it said, "one can, and probably should, think of the ... initial spending as the minimal required option payment required to buy Dish more time ... to sell." The analyst said the work Dish did to get all of its AWS-4 redesignated as downlink could end up saving the company billions of dollars since it would need far fewer cell sits to cover the same area compared with before the spectrum reclassification.

Looking to reassure the International Bureau that it can follow through on its satellite plans, Spectrum Five is telling the bureau it "reasonably expects" to be able to launch the 17/24 GHz broadcast satellite service satellite for which it's seeking FCC approval. In a letter to the bureau posted Friday, Spectrum Five said it "reasonably expects" to be able to post the required bond if its petition for U.S. market access for the satellite is granted within the next six months, "just as Spectrum Five has previously posted bond for other satellite applications." The letter was in response to a bureau letter last month asking the firm to explain why it declined its April 3 grant of market access for the satellite, only to re-petition for that same access eight days later (see 1704250055). Part of Spectrum Five's posted reply letter is redacted.

Earth station siting rules in the spectrum frontiers order could result in limitations inconsistent with upper microwave flexible use system (UMFUS) development and future satellite broadband plans, satellite broadband operators told FCC acting General Counsel Brendan Carr, said a docket 14-177 ex parte filing posted Friday. The operators said the earth station siting conditions impair fixed satellite service (FSS) providers from offering service particularly in unserved and underserved areas. They recommended tiered population coverage limits for FSS earth stations in the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands, allowing earth stations to cover higher percentages of a license area's population the lower the population density of the area. They said there need to be better definitions of transient population limits and recommended definitions to follow for such concepts as major event venues, arterial streets and highways, and urban mass transit routes. The operators recommended eliminating the three-earth station limit on FSS operators in a given county for the 28 GHz band or partial economic area for the 39 GHz band. They pushed for a database for tracking UMFUS facilities as a means for identifying areas of UMFUS deployment. Satellite representatives at the meeting were from Boeing, EchoStar, Intelsat, Inmarsat, OneWeb, O3b and SES. Satellite interests and the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition have been at odds over tiering approaches and transient population limit definitions (see 1704210042).

In the short term, not vertically integrating is cheaper satellite operators, but longer term that lack of vertical integration could lead to "their value proposition evaporating," with value of video eroding and commoditization of data cutting the value of point-to-point, said Northern Sky Research analyst Blaine Curcio in an NSR blog post Thursday. NSR said fixed satellite service traditionally enjoyed fat EBITDA margins and strong profit margins, but that will bifurcate, with operators leasing only capacity keeping those traditional margins but being more at risk of commoditization long term. Those that vertically integrate, adding non-geostationary orbit assets and otherwise trying different business models, will see those margins fall but also could have much more resilient businesses should prices for raw opacity continue to drop, it said.

SES wants to relocate AMC-4 from 67 degrees west to 134.85 degrees west, said an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday. SES asked for special temporary authority to drift the satellite and said a license modification application for reassigning AMC-4 is forthcoming. It said the new orbital location would let the company bring extra Ku-band capacity for in-flight connectivity delivery to U.S. airlines. SES said its affiliate, New Skies Satellites, in March launched its SES-10, which is to operate at 66.9 degrees west and pick up AMC-4's traffic, making AMC-4 available for relocation.

Ligado Networks and Harris plan joint technology demonstrations of beyond visual line-of-sight operations (BVLOS) for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), Ligado said in a news release Thursday. The work comes as Harris earlier this year announced it received a grant from the North Dakota Centers of Excellence Commission to develop technology to enable UAS BVLOS operations and as Ligado has been demonstrating UAS BVLOS applications that use its network capabilities.

Aireon and Canadian civil air navigation system operator Nav Canada ran one of two planned validation test flights of a satellite-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system, Aireon said in a news release Wednesday. Along with that March flight, Aireon said it also did validation flights in March with Polaris Flight Systems and the Federal Aviation Administration (see 1704260047). Aireon said it expects its satellite-based ADS-B system to be operational in 2018, after the completion of the Iridium Next constellation.

Intelsat wants extra life for its NSS-7 and Intelsat 905 satellites. In a pair of FCC International Bureau authorization modification applications (see here and here) filed Tuesday, it asked for extensions of the license terms. The license term for NSS-7, launched in 2002, expired in April, but its expected end of service life is estimated to be in 2023, the company said, asking for a license term extension through July 31, 2023. The license term for Intelsat 905, which started service in 2002, is to expire July 18, and the expected end of service life was most recently estimated to be late 2019 if there were no inclined orbit operation, the company said. It said it plans an inclined orbit operation, which would give it five more years, and asked for a license term extension through Nov. 30, 2024.