A massive low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of Ku-band OneWeb satellites is planned to be put into orbit starting in 2016 that will tie into Intelsat's geostationary orbit satellite network to create a worldwide high-throughput network. OneWeb announced the planned network of more than 600 satellites Thursday. It said it hired Arianespace to do 21 Soyuz launches of its satellites and Virgin Galactic for another 39 using its LauncherOne. It also said it has raised $500 million from a group of companies to help develop broadband technology including the terminals that will allow its LEO satellites to interoperate with Intelsat's GEO satellites. Those investors are Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola, Grupo Salinas, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Qualcomm and Virgin Group.

Fox News Headlines 24/7, a full-time satellite radio news channel, will launch this fall on SiriusXM, the satellite company and Fox News said Wednesday. The channel is part of a multiyear agreement between the two, and will be broadcast on SiriusXM Channel 115. SiriusXM already broadcasts audio simulcasts of cable channels Fox Business Network and Fox News on channels 113 and 114, respectively, as well as Fox News Talk radio programming on Channel 450.

EchoStar plans to roughly double its satellite-based consumer broadband capacity with the launch of its Jupiter-97W satellite under construction now, the company said Tuesday. The company filed an application with the FCC International Bureau requesting approval of technical modifications for Jupiter-97W. The satellite, like its EchoStar XVII launched in 2011, will focus on broadband services in North America and South America, including Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and the U.S. Jupiter-97W will carry 150 Gbps capacity, the company said. Along with the Ka-band satellite, Hughes plans to set up as many as 22 gateway earth stations to establish a terrestrial connection to the Internet. The Papua New Guinea National Information and Communication Technology Authority is administering the launch. Jupiter-97W would be Hughes' third high-throughput Ka-band satellite.

DirecTV drew up its own form rejection letter that would go to broadcasters requesting a market modification that isn't technically or economically feasible. In an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-71, DirecTV said the letter could go to requesting broadcasters as a form of a certification related to a given satellite company's spot beam coverage. The proposed letter says the satellite carrier has looked into such issues for the ZIP codes in question as estimated atmospheric effects, the amount of capacity already being used in the relevant spot beam, clear sky signal margin and estimated interference levels. "Based on this analysis, [Satellite Carrier] cannot provide service to [all/some/the following] zip codes associated with this request," the proposed denial letter said.

Iridium Constellation and Globalstar continue to joust over spectrum, with Iridium both criticizing Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) broadband proposal and laying out its case for the FCC instead expanding the 1.6 GHz spectrum that the companies share, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in RM-11697. "Taken together, the pending Iridium and Globalstar requests are about the future" of big low earth orbit mobile satellite service, but while its sharing proposal will boost mobile satellite services growth, Globalstar's push for a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band "would materially diminish the satellite resources available to first responders, critical industry and consumers," Iridium said. Globalstar has been critical of Iridium's sharing push, saying Iridium has no need for the spectrum and raising red flags about signal interference (see 1505180036). "Iridium has no other option for securing additional spectrum" other than the 1.6 GHz band, Iridium said, saying existing Iridium/Globalstar spectrum sharing "has proven to be workable and free from interference to Globalstar." Globalstar had no comment Wednesday.

DirecTV is "redlining" when customers in 11 small markets around the country can't get local programming, TVFreedom.org said Tuesday in a blog post. "Sitting on massive profits and facing no technological barriers preventing it from addressing this glaring service gap, DirecTV simply failed to invest in the infrastructure needed to deliver local-into-local TV service to rural customers in these local TV markets," said Rob Kenny, TVFreedom.org director-public affairs. The 11 markets are Alpena, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky; North Platte, Nebraska; Glendive, Montana; Helena, Montana; Presque Isle, Maine; Victoria, Texas; Casper/Riverton, Wyoming; Cheyenne, Wyoming/Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Grand Junction/Montrose, Colorado; and Ottumwa, Iowa/Kirksville, Missouri. The markets have become an issue in AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV, as the big four broadcast network associations raised the lack of local-into-local TV service last week in an ex parte filing in docket 14-90 (see 1506180017). In the blog post, Kenny said it "will certainly be disheartening" if the FCC failed to push DirecTV as a condition of the AT&T deal. "What would that say about DirecTV’s view of rural America?" he asked. DirecTV wouldn't comment Tuesday.

The GPS industry continues to voice worries about the growing demand for LTE-based services and the need to protect Global Navigation Satellite System and GPS receivers and services from signal interference. In an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 11-109, Deere, Garmin and Trimble Navigation said they met with FCC staff last week to highlight the protections needed for navigation devices vs. communications ones, and to make clear "that we remain committed to working ... to protect critical GNSS applications from interference while potentially exploring ways that currently underutilized spectrum in adjacent bands can be made more productive." A presentation to FCC staff said LTE band 24 sits closer to the GNSS "receive" band than the usual spectrum spacing for paired wireless broadband spectrum frequencies, meaning GNSS "is expected to tolerate what wireless systems cannot."

ViaSat has started work on ViaSat-3 as the company has been contracted to build the satellite, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing made Thursday. The Ka-band geostationary satellite "is intended to provide a range of communications services to both businesses and consumers," the company said. No estimated time frame of the launch was included in the application, but the company's ViaSat-2 is expected to launch in 2016.

AT&T and DirecTV are arguing against points they once espoused on guaranteed access to sports programming, the American Cable Association said in an ex parte filing in docket 14-90 posted Wednesday, while an array of network affiliates is pushing for local TV requirements as a condition. The ACA has said AT&T's takeover of DirecTV should come with conditions to ensure rival multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) don't get stuck with higher costs for regional sports networks that the two jointly own or would jointly own -- Roots Sports Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Southwest. DirecTV still remains subject to program access conditions, it and AT&T said in a response. But the two "themselves have a long history of raising the same concerns ... about vertically integrated programmers, particularly with respect to access to [regional sports networks] programming," with DirecTV in the past seeking conditions on others similar to what the ACA now seeks on it, the industry association said. Since DirecTV previously pushed for license conditions on deals involving regional sports programming and MVPD distribution, such as in Comcast's takeover of NBC/Universal, the FCC "should take heed of their prior advocacy," the ACA said. The sports programming issue is among what AT&T and DirecTV have called a "laundry list" of conditions proposed by parties such as ACA, Comptel, Cox, Dish, Public Knowledge and TiVo and opposed by the two (see [Ref:1505270049]). Meanwhile, the ABC Television Affiliates Association, the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association, the FBC Television Affiliates Association, and the NBC Television Affiliates collectively are pushing the FCC to require that a merged AT&T/DirecTV adopt local-into-local television service in all 210 local designated market areas. DirecTV currently does not offer any local television stations in 11 small markets around the country, ranging from Presque Isle, Maine, to Victoria, Texas. And forcing it to provide local-into-local service in every market would help offset the even-less interest a larger DirecTV would have in providing local service to every market, the associations said in an ex parte presentation filed Thursday.

SES launched an Ultra HD demonstration channel for the North American TV market, it said Tuesday. The channel, broadcast via SES-3 at 103 degrees west, will enable cable operators to prepare and test their networks for Ultra HD trials, the satellite operator said. The satellite provides broad coverage over North America and is positioned to deliver live and linear Ultra HD to cable networks, SES said. It joins three UHD demo channels available across Europe. SES initiated the new UHD demo channel in response to cable operator demand after its demonstration of the first live and linear Ultra HD broadcasts to cable systems at the NAB and INTX conferences this spring (see 1504130001). The Ultra HD broadcasts were enabled by SES’s Ultra-HD-ready linear content delivery network, which is used to transmit the UHD demo channel, SES said. The camera-to-screen ecosystem uses the multicasting capability of DOCSIS 3.0, used by most cable systems, it said. “Cable operators and content distributors can now begin to prepare their systems and test their networks for Ultra HD delivery, leading into major trials this summer,” said SES Vice President-Business Development, North America Steve Corda. The channel is expected to reach subscribers’ homes later this year.