EchoStar has renewed its push against the FCC levying regulatory fees on non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators that have U.S. market access. In a filing posted Monday in docket 15-121, the satellite company reiterated its opposition to an FCC proposal to charge direct broadcast satellite companies a 12-cents-per-subscriber regulatory fee -- a stance shared by numerous other satellite companies (see 1506230064). However, EchoStar and fellow satellite company Intelsat are parting ways on regulatory fees on operators that do not hold Title III licenses, as EchoStar said such a fee would run up against federal law, FCC precedent and multilateral trade agreements. Those fees also would keep foreign operators from entering the U.S. market and "could very likely lead to similar policies abroad resulting in potentially significant increase in costs." EchoStar raised similar arguments in 2014 when the FCC proposed similar regulatory fees. Intelsat in its own filing last month said the regulatory fee issue was "in fact very straightforward: non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators serving the U.S. market are benefiting at the expense of U.S. licensees. The discrepancy in the cost of providing service to the U.S. market gives non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators a competitive advantage over their U.S.-licensed competitors."

Rocket system maker Rocket Lab plans to build and operate its own orbital launch site, the company said in a Wednesday news release. The launch site, on New Zealand's South Island, will be used for launches of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, which focuses on the small communications and imaging satellite market. The company said it expected the site to be operational by year end.

LightSquared and the GPS Innovation Alliance continue to spar over interference issues, with LightSquared criticizing multiple assertions in a presentation the GPS industry group gave to the FCC last month. Worries about its proposed satellite-based broadband network interfering with GPS signal reception is overblown and points more to GPS receiver design problems, LightSquared said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340. In its presentation, the GPS Innovation Alliance said that Global Navigation Satellite System equipment can better tolerate signal interference than many other commercial devices, but the power difference between GNSS and LTE signals is huge and the spacing between the signals is slim, meaning GNSS must tolerate what wireless systems do not. That presentation had "several significant errors," LightSquared said in its rebuttal. Receive-only devices such as GPS units don't need wide gaps of spectrum spacing from other operations, and the band gap the industry group talked about is at times less than what exists between LightSquared and GNSS, it said. "If GNSS devices are particularly vulnerable to interference, then high levels of resiliency should be a primary consideration in responsible receiver design," LightSquared said. "The tools to prevent [interference] lie in the hands of the GNSS receiver designers themselves."

Seven commonly controlled broadcasters' attempts to get the FCC involved in stuck contract negotiations with DirecTV "turn the good-faith standard on its head," said the DBS provider Wednesday in a filing posted in docket 12-1. Blackhawk Broadcasting, Bristlecone Broadcasting, Broadcasting Licenses Limited Partnership, Eagle Creek Broadcasting of Laredo, Mountain Licenses, Northwest Broadcasting and Stainless Broadcasting filed a complaint with the FCC last month. They asked the FCC to step into the retransmission consent negotiations, alleging DirecTV wasn't negotiating in good faith and asking the agency to force it to show numbers to back up its estimations of the market value of the group's signals (see 1506120021). The rates Northwest demanded would make it "by far the highest-paid broadcaster that DirecTV carries anywhere," and disclosing what it pays others would violate agreements with those broadcasters, said the satellite company. Having failed to show any kind of bad-faith negotiations, Northwest has no case to make for asking the FCC to open DirecTV's rate data to it, the company said. "If ever there might be an occasion to do so, surely this is not it."

The Sky Mexico-1 satellite finished on-orbit testing and checkout of spacecraft systems and was turned over to owner DirecTV, Orbital ATK said in a Tuesday news release. The satellite was launched May 27 from French Guiana. It will provide direct-to-home TV broadcast services to DirecTV customers in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.

ViaSat is adding new products and services aimed at government agency and military customers, it said in a Monday news release. It said the new offerings include cybersecurity vulnerability assessment and remediation services and managed security services, and cyber-sensing capabilities available via software upgrades to some of its network managed security services.

Iridium signed up resellers for its new Push-to-Talk satellite-based communications system, including AST Group, Beam Communications, Gardline Comms, Gilat Satcom and Spacenet Communication Services de Mexico, the company said in a Monday news release. Push-to-Talk is based on the satellite company's low earth orbit constellation, and uses its various PTT radios and other providers' PTT devices that employ the Iridium PTT 9523 Core transceiver.

LightSquared is asking for FCC help in obtaining GPS receiver designs, having confidential talks with the major GPS firms about the economic issues concerning them and meeting in-person with GPS executives to hammer out industry issues with the satellite company. LightSquared CEO Doug Smith met Philip Verveer, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, to talk about GPS industry concerns as LightSquared makes plans for its L-band spectrum once it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said an ex parte notice posted Monday in docket 12-340. Smith "emphasized that he is certain LightSquared and the major GPS device firms can reach a reasonable business compromise," LightSquared said, saying FCC intervention "could help resolve the issues." LightSquared also has hired a consulting firm, Roberson & Associates, to study interference issues between GPS services and broadband (see 1506250008).

Globalstar now operates in Africa. It said Thursday its gateway in Gaborone, Botswana, is operational, opening the door for it to offer its Simplex data services across the continent jointly with Broadband Botswana Internet. Globalstar said it's targeting offerings at such applications as commercial trucking fleet; mining and construction equipment tracking; and livestock and endangered species monitoring.

LightSquared is asking for U.S. Transportation Department feedback on a plan for testing how terrestrial broadband and GPS might co-exist. In an FCC ex parte filing in docket 12-340 posted Wednesday, it said technology consulting firm Roberson and Associates gave the DOT some initial outlines on its testing approach. The testing involves spectrum used by global navigation satellite system (GNSS) spectrum and its proximity to spectrum used by LightSquared and Inmarsat, and how LTE bases or handsets can cause interference with nearby GPS receivers. The Roberson testing proposal will look at actual devices from such providers as Apple, Garmin, Magellan, Samsung, Topcon and Trimble, and measure the relationship of GPS error and signal-to-noise ratios. The Roberson presentation said the testing is to confirm that front-end filters on such GPS devices allow GNSS reception and still let the devices work properly. And in cases when GPS performance still sees interference from terrestrial LTE despite such front-end filters, possible fixes include use of different augmentation signals that improve GPS accuracy, or different front-end filters, LightSquared said.