Recent mergers and acquisitions involving very small aperture terminals should mean the companies are better positioned for the technology development needed for 5G, non-geostationary orbit constellations and very high-throughput satellites, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm blogged Monday. He said the trend of a single VSAT platform for a high-throughput satellite payload means those earth station vendors need scale and financial health.
Swarm Technologies -- which received FCC OK in 2019 for a 150-satellite VHF non-voice non-geostationary constellation (see 1910180003) -- wants U.S. access for its German-authorized planned 450-satellite UHF NVNG constellation. A petition for declaratory ruling filed Friday with the FCC International Bureau seeks to begin launches in Q3, occurring over five years. It said they will orbit in altitudes of 325 kilometers (202 miles) to 585 kilometers, use 399.9-400.05 MHz for uplinks and 400.15-401 MHz for downlinks. The satellites would have nominal lifespans of 2.6-4.3 years.
Travel restrictions have meant "a select few" Satellite 2020-goers internationally had to cancel, but the satellite trade show and conference will go on as scheduled March 9-12, it emailed Monday. It said it's working with parties including the Washington Convention Center and member hotels "to ensure increased disinfection efforts, hand sanitizer stations and safety precautions." It said close to 12,000 have registered, up 9% from a year ago this time. The MWC 2020 event in Barcelona was canceled due to coronavirus concerns (see 2002120056).
Of 39 reports of GPS interference received by the Coast Guard Navigation Center in the six months ending Jan. 31, the biggest source of problems was user equipment, particularly with software or other update needs, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Thursday.
The FCC rejected Iridium's petition for partial reconsideration of the agency's modification of O3b's non-geostationary orbit system U.S. market access grant. An order Tuesday said the conditions on O3b's market grant also cover issues Iridium raised as it sought conditions on O3b's market access in the 19.7-20.2 GHz and 29.5-30.0 GHz bands. Iridium didn't comment Thursday.
Amazon "remains committed" to good-faith coordinating with other Ka-band non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite services and ensuring current and future service providers can work in the operational environment, it told FCC International Bureau staffers, said a posting Monday. Its proposed Kuiper constellation faced coordination-related criticisms from SpaceX (see 2002210002).
The U.K.'s announcement last week of creation of its National Timing Centre, using a network of terrestrial atomic clocks to provide accurate time signals to first responders and the energy grid without relying on global navigation satellite system (GNSS) timing signals, is a "refreshing" example of a government taking the issue seriously, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Thursday. The U.K., in its announcement, said the backup system is in case of a widespread satellite failure. A White House directive earlier this month set a deadline for the Commerce Department to make available a non-GNSS source of precision timing signals available to the public (see 2002120044).
Amazon's arguments in defense of its planned Kuiper mega-constellation involve the capability to coordinate with other non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) operators, but it never commits to completing coordination before it starts operations, SpaceX said in an FCC International Bureau posting Thursday. SpaceX argued Kuiper should be part of a new NGSO processing round (see 1911270004) and in new filing said sans that commitment, the agency must assume Kuiper will operate without completing coordination. A new processing round would be the best route to encouraging coordination, it said. Kuiper didn't comment Friday.
Satellite services company ERT and Hughes Network Systems will partner on an upgrade and expansion of managed satellite and wireless services at various National Weather Service sites, Hughes said Wednesday. It said the two will use capacity on Hughes' EchoStar XVII and XIX high-throughput satellites to provide NWS with network services for gathering and reporting local weather tracking and forecasting data, and with a 4G LTE wireless backup at mission-critical locations.
DOD, in its objections to Ligado's L-band license modification applications (see 1911210055), is violating the legal requirement NTIA be the executive branch coordinator and representative on federal spectrum issues, setting "a dangerous precedent for future spectrum proceedings," Public Knowledge said in an FCC docket 11-109 posting Friday. Now other agencies are emboldened to circumvent NTIA, it said, noting concerns raised by House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., that the federal spectrum management system "broke down" (see 2001240034). Ligado "has participated in good faith" and deserves an answer, PK said. DOD emailed that NTIA, "on behalf of the Executive Branch, has transmitted to the FCC the unambiguous and unanimous federal government position to deny the Ligado request. Therefore, we defer all inquiries related to the Ligado matter to NTIA."