AT&T's DirecTV video services will be offered via streaming over mobile devices, smart TVs and PCs sometime in Q4, AT&T said in a news release Tuesday. The company said the three video packages -- DirecTV Now, DirecTV Mobile and DirecTV Preview -- won't require annual contracts, satellite dishes or set-top boxes. The advertising-supported Preview package will be free and feature some content from AT&T's Audience Network and a variety of other networks and content sources, plus millennial-targeted video from Otter Media, AT&T said. The Mobile package will be focused on smartphone users, while the Now package will include "much of what is available from DirecTV today" in on-demand and live programming and also have a number of add-on options, the company said. It also said it will continue to provide DirecTV's satellite TV service and its U-verse TV and Internet service.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau and EchoStar are in a disagreement over security issues for satellite communications terminals. The bureau, in a filing Tuesday in RM-11664, said it was supplementing a previous EchoStar ex parte filing on a meeting between EchoStar and FCC staff over proposed uses of the 28 GHz and 38 GHz bands. At the meeting, FCC staff questioned fixed satellite service security readiness and provided an IOActive presentation describing numerous security vulnerabilities in terminals, such as back doors, hard-coded credentials, insecure protocols and weak password resets. According to the FCC, EchoStar "stated that it was familiar with the IOActive research paper but indicated it contained some inaccuracies, without elaborating." The FCC, in a footnote in Monday's filing, said its staff "is not aware of any inaccuracies associated with this research."

Dish Network and the states suing it over robocall allegations are dueling over post-trial discovery issues and related costs, with each side calling the other "disingenuous." U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough of Springfield, Illinois, last week ordered California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio -- which alongside the FTC are suing Dish for alleged violations of the telemarketing sales rule (see 0903260144) -- to pay costs and fees for post-trial discovery about residential addresses associated with telephone numbers. A states' motion last week asked the court to sanction Dish for allegedly hiding, until the last week of trial, data on the states of residence for recipients of telemarketing calls, and order Dish to pay the states' costs and fees for area code analyses they wouldn't have undertaken "if Dish had produced the state address information" as required by discovery orders. That trial testimony "revealed that for years and even during the trial, Dish had been disingenuous [by] representing that the state of residence for the recipients of its telemarketing calls is unknowable," the states said. They also asked that the court reconsider its order granting costs and fees to Dish for any further discovery on one of the area code analyses. In an opposition filed Monday, Dish said, "It is the State Plaintiffs whose positions here are disingenuous" when they don't acknowledge that Dish retailers made close to 90 percent of the calls in question and the company has no information about the addresses. The motion for sanctions should be denied given that the discovery requests given to Dish "are so broad and general as to cover virtually any information in [its] databases," Dish said. The company also said the court should deny the states' motion to reconsider the decision ordering them to pay Dish's costs and attorney fees for the area code analyses, because the states' arguments are the same the court previously shot down.

Gogo plans to make satellite modems compatible with its planned 2Ku in-flight connectivity service and commercially available in 2017, it said in a news release Monday. Testing for the modem will begin on Gogo's Boeing 737 test lab "in the coming months," Gogo said. The modem will be capable of delivering 400 Mbps to an aircraft and of simultaneously supporting IP streaming and IPTV, it said. Gogo said it's working with Gilat Satellite Networks on modem development.

Telesat wants to use its Telesat 19V satellite to serve the U.S. market in the Ka- and Ku- bands, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday. The geostationary satellite is expected to launch in Q1 2018 and operate at 63 degrees west, co-locating with Telstar 14R and providing Ku-band spot and regional beam coverage in Brazil, spot beam coverage in the Andean region and regional coverage in the North Atlantic Ocean region, while its Ka-band will provide high-throughput capacity in parts of South America, northern Canada, parts of the Caribbean and parts of the North Atlantic region, including parts of Maine, Telesat said.

Intelsat needs additional time to drift Intelsat 16 from 76.2 degrees west to 58.1 degrees west, the satellite company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday requesting a 30-day extension of its special temporary authority for the drift. Intelsat 16 began the drift Jan. 22 and the trip is expected to take roughly 10 weeks, it said. The company said it also has a pending application to permanently operate Intelsat 16 at 58.1 degrees west. The relocation was initially expected to begin in November and has been moved back twice by unspecified delays (see 1512230009).

With its Inmarsat-3 F5 satellite in orbit and to take over traffic currently carried by Inmarsat-3 F4 starting on Thursday, Inmarsat is asking the FCC International Bureau for a 60-day special temporary authorization starting that day for F5 to operate with mobile earth stations while an application to replace F4 with F5 is pending. The two satellites were last in a series of third-generation satellites and are virtually identical in design and operate in the same parameters, Inmarsat said in a set of IB filings last Thursday (see here, here and here).

Globalstar, while maintaining its proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) won't pose Wi-Fi interference problems, also is talking to the FCC about safeguard requirements for its proposed network operating system. "Think about the [operating system] as providing an extra measure of protection to both licensed and unlicensed services that totally ensures that no detrimental impact can ever occur without being quickly eliminated," CEO Jay Monroe said during a conference call Thursday evening as the company announced Q4 financial results. Globalstar "expressed our support for safeguards to minimize any risk of disruption" in a meeting with FCC staff, including International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-213. Along with the network operating system, such safeguards also include "an effective equipment certification process," Monroe said Thursday.

Harris CapRock Communications is seeking special temporary authority (STA) to operate its new earth station onboard vessel terminals with O3b's fixed satellite service while it readies a license modification application that would give it long-term operating authority. In a pair of FCC International Bureau filings Wednesday (see here and here), Harris CapRock said its 2.4-meter multiband Space Track maritime earth station is designed to operate in the C-, Ka- and Ku- bands and it's filed a commercial modification application for C- and Ku-band operations. The pendency of that application precludes filing a modification application to add Ka-band operation authority, thus necessitating the STA request to let it communicate with O3b's Ka-band fixed satellite service system, Harris CapRock said. The STA requests would allow the Space Track earth stations to operate in the 27.6-28.4 MHz and 28.6-29.1 MHz uplink bands and 17.8-18.6 MHz and 18.8-19.3 MHz downlink bands, the company said.

Iridium's launch plans for its Next constellation hit a hiccup. The first satellites are now due to be launched in June by SpaceX instead of in April by Kosmotras, CEO Matt Desch said in a conference call Thursday as the company announced Q4 financial results. That delay won't affect the constellation overall, Desch said, and it still will be up and operational by the end of 2017. Desch said Iridium found out days ago Kosmotras had yet to receive the approvals it needs from the Russian Ministry of Defense for the launch. "We just didn't want that kind of uncertainty in our program," he said, so while the Russian launch company works on approvals, the SpaceX launch that was to take place in July has been moved up to June. The rest of the Next launches will follow the current SpaceX schedule, with the next one to be in October, while the Kosmotras launch will be worked in when it's ready, Desch said: "This isn't that big a change from our overall plan." The amended launch schedule won't have major effects on customers and it doesn't significantly change the costs of Next, he said. Desch said a Spanish satellite launch is facing similar Kosmotras issues. Kosmotras didn't comment. Meanwhile, Desch said, production for its 66-satellite global broadband constellation is ramping up, with 12 in various stages of manufacture and Orbital ATK expecting to be producing six a month by July. For the quarter, Iridium said it had revenue of $106.4 million, up 6 percent, and ended the year with 782,000 subscribers, up from 739,000 at the end of 2014, with government business driving that growth. For 2016, Iridium said it expected service revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent, compared with 2.5 percent growth in 2015, with government work expected to offset sluggishness in commercial work. Long range, once Next is operational, service revenue is expected to be $420 million to $465 million in 2018, compared with roughly $242 million in 2015, the company said. Desch said its investment in Aireon, which plans to deploy a global satellite-based aircraft tracking and monitoring system in 2018, also is showing momentum as the company signs up new customers even before its launch. The FAA also is looking to test and validate space-based Aireon data, he said. "We believe the FAA use of Aireon data is a matter of when, not if." Iridium closed Thursday at $6.97, down 7 percent.