Looking to boost its presence in the aviation market, ViaSat purchased Irish aviation software company Arconics, it said in a media release Monday. The companies had a partnership revolving around wireless in-flight entertainment offerings, and post-acquisition, the satellite company said it plans on offering airlines "real-time insight, control and agility of aircaft and flight data."

Intelsat wants to relocate its Intelsat 9 satellite and use it for two additional years. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, the satellite company asked for a modification of the Intelsat 9 authorization to let it relocate from 43.1 degrees west to 29.5 degrees west. It said the drift is expected to take about two months, with operations at 29.5 degrees west expected to start around May 1. Intelsat 9 would take the place of Intelsat 701, which is currently at 29.5 degrees west and is expected to de-orbit in Q2, Intelsat said. Intelsat 9's current license term is set to expire July 31 and the company said it wanted to extend that term through July 31, 2019.

Iridium's L-band Next satellite constellation could end up integrated into a number of Ka- and Ka-band constellations, providing a backup data route, CEO Matt Desch said Wednesday at a Wells Fargo investor conference. Satellite operators like OneWeb, SES and Intelsat "see us as a complement for them, a potential partner" with integrated networks, Desch said. He said given that OneWeb doesn't provide safety services and its bent pipe configuration means it has only spotty coverage until its entire satellite network is built out, dual-mode Iridium and OneWeb terminals could make sense. OneWeb didn't comment. Desch also said the company expects the first launch of its Next satellite constellation -- delayed by a September explosion during a preflight ignition test (see 1610270015) -- to come in December. After that 10-satellite launch, a second launch of 10 satellites should follow in about 90 days, he said, with the entire constellation in orbit by early 2018. Iridium's existing 800,000-plus subscribers won't notice any transition to the Next constellation, with satellites with longer design lives, more channels and higher waveforms than the current constellation, Desch said. He said the company will focus on such markets as safety services and maritime and aviation connectivity, staying away from the broadband mass market, which will see sizable amounts of capacity becoming available in the next five years. Desch also defended the company against criticisms by L-band rival Inmarsat that Iridium has overstated the data speeds Next could provide, saying such companies as Rockwell and L-3 wouldn't be building terminals for it if there was no market.

AT&T buying Time Warner is likely the first in a series of transactions that combine spectrum, networks and scale in video, Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen said Wednesday during the company's Q3 earnings call. "You can imagine all the interesting things that might take place once this current auction is over," Ergen said. "If someone puts all the pieces together, and AT&T is on the path to do that, people on the sidelines have to do something different," he said, adding that Dish lacks the network leg of the stool. Ergen also said that while over-the-top services have huge growth potential, they also carry some business challenges. "OTT in general has the potential to be as big or bigger" than direct broadcast satellite, he said. "It's the next way to watch TV." But the ease of switching providers could create challenges for content providers, he said. A ruling from U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit regarding the designated entity appeal of the FCC decision on AWS-3 bidding credits (see 1601130062) should come sometime in the first half of 2017, Ergen said. There likely will be handsets that use Band 66 -- which includes AWS-3 spectrum -- before there's a network using the spectrum, Dish executives said. They said Qualcomm is shipping Band 66 chipsets, and Intel is likely to follow, while LG's V20 phone also supports the Band 66 configuration. Dish said the expectation is more Android devices will adopt it in 2017, though timing is murkier for iOS. In a note to investors, Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet said the company's cash flow statement suggests a broadcast spectrum auction deposit of about $1.5 billion, meaning Dish could end up buying up to 100 MHz of nationwide spectrum. He also said that incumbent telcos have stretched balanced sheets, leaving Dish "as the only way [to] buy significant spectrum for equity."

Univision programming will be included on new AT&T streaming service, DirecTV Now, as part of a “multiplatform distribution agreement,” the broadcaster said in a news release Tuesday. DirecTV Now will offer Univision stations, Univision Network, UniMás, Galavisión, UDN (Univision Deportes Network) and the Fusion network, it said. The agreement includes TV Everywhere provisions and will allow U-Verse and DirecTV customers to stream Univision's live and VOD content, that company said. DirecTV Now will launch in Q4, with 100-plus channels, Univision noted.

Among potential EchoStar concerns as the company reported quarterly results Tuesday are some FCC and other regulatory proceedings, along with business issues relating to its devices. "Our customers face emerging competition from other providers of digital media and potential government action preventing them from using security systems in connection with set-top boxes," the company said in an SEC filing, which noted that Dish Network is a top customer; both companies are controlled by their Chairman Charlie Ergen. "The FCC is considering adopting regulations enabling consumer electronics manufacturers, innovators and other developers to build devices or software solutions that may provide access to multichannel video programming with the use of user interfaces and without the use of any set-top box." That unlock-the-box proceeding has encountered slow going, with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler just before commissioners' Sept. 29 monthly meeting putting off a vote on a draft order. Discussions have been continuing (see 1610180052). Demand for EchoStar's satellite TV digital set-tops from Dish and other customers "will likely continue to decline and we may not be able to sustain our current revenue levels," it said. In July, the company wrote, it decided to end offering consumer security and home automation products and services that were introduced this year. In a section of its filing on risks, the FCC set-top proceeding and spectrum frontiers order were cited, as some of the Ka-band spectrum where EchoStar operates broadband gateway earth stations has been enabled for 5G. Other countries "are also considering regulations that could limit access to the Ka band," EchoStar noted. Carriers and satellite interests aren't in full agreement on technical rules related to an ongoing spectrum frontiers proceeding (see 1611010044). The company didn't immediately comment further to us Tuesday. For Q3, the set-top maker reported that sales fell 2.4 percent to $742.3 million from the year-ago quarter as profit rose 32 percent to $37.4 million. In a quarter that was largely as expected, Hughes broadband subscribership declined by about 12,000 to 1.02 million "as the firm’s satellites have reached capacity in certain areas," Citigroup analysts wrote investors. "Citi forecasts flat subscriber growth for the year."

EchoStar's Jupiter 2 multi-spot beam Ka-band satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for launch, Space Systems Loral said in a news release Monday. SSL said it designed and built the satellite for EchoStar and it will increase capacity for the company's HughesNet high-speed satellite broadband service in North America.

Globalstar executives have talked repeatedly with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Edward Smith about "ways to reach an expeditious outcome" for the satellite company's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service network plans, according to an ex parte filing Monday in docket 13-213. The filing recapped three separate meetings or phone calls between Globalstar -- including General Counsel Barbee Ponder and Vice President-Finance, Business Operations and Strategy Tim Taylor -- and the FCC staffers.

Dish Network and plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action complaint have come to an agreement on carving out some phone numbers and calls to those numbers from the class certification in the case. In a stipulation (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, the company and plaintiffs Thomas Krakauer and the others said the carve-outs are being done "to narrow issues for trial and facilitate the effective presentation of classwide proof." A total of 1,494 phone numbers, accounting for 4,231 calls, should be removed, Dish and the plaintiffs said as they asked the court for an order modifying the class definition. The categories of numbers to be removed include listing names that appear to be businesses, different listing names associated with the same number and numbers in which call records indicate the first call to the number contains comments suggesting the recipient requested a callback or agreed to be called back.

Globalstar still hopes to reach a compromise that will bring FCC approval for its proposed terrestrial low-power service, CEO James Monroe said during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. The company didn't take questions on TLPS. In an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-213, Globalstar also recapped a meeting involving Vice President-Finance, Business Operations and Strategy Tim Taylor, consultant and ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. At that meeting, Globalstar said it talked about allowing opportunistic access to Wi-Fi channel 14, where Globalstar hasn't deployed TLPS.