SpaceX and United Launch Alliance will be launch providers for SES' C-band satellites to be launched as part of the satcom operator's C-band clearing, SES said Wednesday (see here and here). It said two are scheduled to go up on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2022, with the launch provider also providing launch capability for a contingency satellite. It said ULA will launch another two on its Atlas V rocket. SES' spectrum-clearing plan has it launching three C-band replacement satellites and a spare by end of Q3 2022 (see 2006220006).

Earth station collocation limits in the International Bureau's June public notice on upper microwave flexible use service stations need to be brought in compliance with FCC rules, and the staff needs to define "highway" as do spectrum frontiers orders, satellite officials told an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per a docket 17-172 posting Tuesday. Industry urged allowing more flexibility in antenna pattern demonstrations, permitting use of clear-sky equivalent isotropic radiated power levels and yanking the requirement to aggregate population values for all licensed communications points. Representatives were with the Satellite Industry Association, Intelsat, SES, EchoStar, SpaceX, Planet, Omnispace, Telesat, Amazon, Boeing, Spire, ViaSat, Inmarsat and Astranis. SIA lobbied others on the eighth floor about its petition for reconsideration (see 2007240072).

Citing "extraordinary demand for access to the Starlink non-geostationary orbit satellite system," SpaceX asked the FCC International Bureau to modify its blanket earth station license to bump authorized units from 1 million to 5 million. Friday's application said it hasn't advertised the broadband satellite constellation, but close to 700,000 people in all states over a few days registered interest. Its license was granted in March.

Multichannel video and data distribution service proponents' own analyses show 5G in 12 GHz can't be done without interfering with existing non-geostationary orbit licensees there, said an FCC International Bureau posting Friday. It recounted meetings between SpaceX representatives and Commissioner Brendan Carr, aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, and Wireless and International Bureau staffers. SpaceX challenged MVDDS arguments against lower orbits for its proposed Starlink constellation, saying previous modifications to altitudes were made with no such objection and the band today has no 5G operations.

Some, but not all, of the more than three dozen requests to be added to the FCC's C-band incumbent earth stations list were included, the International Bureau said Monday, releasing an updated list. Requests from operators that said they were unaware of the registration window and its May 2019 closing were rejected. Staff also rejected earth station operators that tried to add antennas to their registrations and indicated they hadn't registered them previously because they thought registering just one would still give them needed interference protection. The bureau also denied asks to be allowed to renew expired registrations, and some that were dismissed for nonpayment of registration fees. It did allow modification of earth station registrations to reflect changes due to the broadcast incentive auction repack made since registration. The bureau said future earth station location changes beyond minor corrections will be reviewed case by case and won't necessarily allow a station to retain incumbent status. With the Aug. 31 deadline for incumbent earth stations to choose the lump sum repacking payment or reimbursement for actual relocation costs, licensees now need to look closely at the election requirements and consider if the lump sum will be enough to cover costs, blogged Lee Petro of Pillsbury, who has broadcast repack experience. Accepting a lump sum releases the FCC from all future claims for relief. Licensees need to ascertain if taking the commission's version of the standard deduction is better than itemizing expenses, he said Monday.

Hiber, Myriota and Kineis have worked since fall on a coordination agreement based on the UHF non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service processing round cutoff date, and it's baseless to say granting Swarm's late-filed petition and ask for a waiver (see 2005190001) would cause no harm. That's what the three opponents to Swarm's petition told FCC International Bureau staff, said a posting Thursday. The three said they are hard-pressed to share the 120 kHz uplink band, and adding Swarm would mean less than 30 kHz per operator, which wouldn't help Swarm because it says it has a spectrum capacity shortfall in its VHF operations. Swarm outside counsel didn't comment Friday.

The FCC approved Amazon's planned 3,236-satelite Kuiper non-geostationary orbit mobile satellite service in the Ka band (see 1907050015), said an order in Friday's Daily Digest. Amazon said it plans to invest more than $10 billion. Asked about timing of inaugural launch, the company didn't comment. The FCC dismissed petitions challenging Kuiper from SES/O3b, Telesat, Theia and OneWeb. It denied Kuiper's processing round waiver request and ordered the operator coordinate to prevent harmful interference to systems licensed or granted U.S. market access in previous NGSO fixed satellite service processing rounds. Applauding approval, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia, said Kuiper would be "a significant contribution to closing the digital divide."

The relatively low number of maritime connectivity contracts announced this year compared with past years, along with the bankruptcies of mobility satcom providers SpeedCast and Global Eagle, could point to bigger problems in the mobility maritime sector, Northern Sky Research analyst Brad Grady blogged Thursday.

Eutelsat and Intelsat signed a deal giving the 48 degrees east orbital position, where both have orbital rights, to Eutelsat Quantum, Eutelsat said Thursday. Quantum is expected to launch by year-end, and its capacity will be distributed by both operators, it said.

SiriusXM added 200,000 net new subscribers in Q2 despite stay-at-home mandates, said CEO Jim Meyer on a Thursday investor call. Revenue fell 5% from a year earlier on a double-digit hit to ad sales, he said. “We are poised for a strong finish to the year, despite an uncertain economic outlook and rising COVID-19 cases in parts of the country.” Self-paid net subscriber adds are expected to top 500,000 in 2020, he said. Though auto sales on which SiriusXM relies so heavily for subscriber growth declined, Q2 “finished better than it started,” said Meyer. SiriusXM subs penetrated 77% of new cars sold in Q2 and are on track to reach 80% by year-end, he said. “Stay tuned for even more” 360L connected car deployments, following commitments from six tier 1 OEMs, said Meyer. “This deployment is now really gaining steam. We expect to end this year with about 1.4 million 360L vehicles in operation.” SiriusXM expects deployments to “roughly triple” in 2021, he said. Management is pleased that the reduction in Pandora’s ad-supported listening hours “has been abating,” said Meyer. After declining 18% early in Q2, “ad hours finished the quarter down less than 6%,” he said. “We’re seeing gains in hours spent listening to CE devices mitigating declines on mobile and web.”