SES signed an agreement with Luxembourg's M7 Group for additional capacity on the Astra satellite at 23.5 degrees east. M7 Group will use the capacity to provide HD broadcasting for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, SES said in a news release Thursday. M7 Group will use the additional capacity to expand Skylink, its satellite TV platform.

The Satellite Industry Association wants a 45-day comment deadline delay for an FCC rulemaking on satellite issues, and comments should be due Jan. 29 and replies March 2, SIA said in a motion for extension posted Wednesday in docket 12-267. The Oct. 31 Further NPRM seeks comment on "several dozen proposals with significant domestic and international implications for the satellite industry," including how the FCC makes satellite network filings to the ITU, said the association. "Due to the ongoing ITU Plenipotentiary Conference currently taking place in Korea, however, many satellite industry experts on this topic are unavailable during the designated comment period."

The Linkin Park concert Nov. 19 at the O2 World Berlin arena will be the world’s first live concert to be broadcast via satellite encoded in HEVC with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, 50 frames a second and a 10-bit color depth, said SES and Samsung, which are teaming up for the event. It will be available exclusively on the Astra Ultra HD demo channel and can be received on Samsung 2014 Ultra HD TV screens, they said. SES Platform Services will manage the encoding of the content, they said.

Gilat unveiled its satellite-cellular hybrid terminal. The SkyEdge II-c Libra terminal was designed to enable mobile network operators to extend their broadband reach beyond the limits of their existing mobile or DSL infrastructures, Gilat said Wednesday in a news release. The terminal allows direct-to-home service providers to enrich their offerings by adding broadband services, it said. The terminal includes a standard receive-only antenna, low-noise block converter and a self-install option, which reduces deployment-related expenses, it said.

Iridium continued to urge the FCC to grant its revised proposal to designate 1616 MHz-1617.5 MHz for shared use between Iridium and Globalstar. After meetings with Globalstar and the International Bureau, it was brought to light that Iridium is using the existing shared spectrum without any evidence of harmful interference to Globalstar’s mobile satellite services, "and that this is occurring under conditions where Globalstar claims to be heavily using the spectrum in question,” Iridium said in supplemental comments in docket 13-213. The additional spectrum requested by Iridium would enable it “to maximize the effectiveness of its current- and next-generation satellite systems and facilitate Iridium’s continued development and introduction of new advanced services and expansion into new markets,” it said. If the FCC approves Globalstar’s terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), there can be little question that Globalstar’s use of the L-band spectrum “will be reduced and unlikely to ever be heavy in nature once TLPS is deployed across the country,” Iridium said.

Engineers for the Integrity of Broadcast Auxiliary Services Spectrum said the FCC should give no credence to Globalstar’s filing in response to Kerrisdale Capital. The filing doesn’t mention co-channel TV broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) stations concerning Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), EIBASS said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-213. The Globalstar filing said TLPS would be compatible with existing 2.4 GHz S-band Wi-Fi operations, “while ignoring how newcomer co-channel AWS-5 operations would avoid interference to grandfathered A10 TV pickup stations in many of the major metros,” it said, referring to metropolitan areas. The AWS-5 portion of TLPS shouldn’t be allowed inside the operational areas of record of any grandfathered TV BAS channel A10 TV pickup station, it said.

The FCC International Bureau is seeking comment on proposals to amend rules for the licensing and operation of earth stations and satellites. Initial comments are due Dec. 15, replies Jan. 14, the bureau said Friday in a Federal Registernotice. The modified rules were proposed in a Further NPRM adopted by the commission in September (see 1410010048).

SES and Global Eagle Entertainment formed a partnership to deliver global Ku-band satellite in-flight connectivity to airlines. SES will provide the satellite bandwidth for use in Global Eagle's in-flight connectivity system, SES said Thursday in a news release. The agreement includes access to the existing SES network, and to upcoming high throughput satellite spot beam-based systems, "providing significant increases in bandwidth speeds," it said.

Arianespace signed a contract with European Launch Vehicle for 10 Vega launch vehicles. The contract follows a long-term procurement agreement for the launch vehicles signed last year, Arianespace said Wednesday in a news release. The launchers will enter service in 2015, it said. The Vega is suited to launch small scientific and earth observation satellites "into low or sun-synchronous orbit," Arianespace said.

The third group of four satellites from O3b Networks is scheduled to launch Dec. 18. With this launch, the company will have 12 satellites in orbit, O3b said in a news release. The satellites will be launched on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana, it said. The satellites will be launched into an orbit that provides O3b customers "with substantial performance benefits due to lower latency or delay," it said.