Iridium and Speedcast have signed a deal for Speedcast to add the Iridium Certus service to its Atlas portfolio of offerings targeting the land mobile market, such as real-time vehicle tracking, internet, phone and data transfer, Iridium said Tuesday. It said the two companies already partner on global maritime services. It said testing of the Certus service, provided via the Next constellation, is underway and it will be rolled out commercially via a series of service classes.
Intelsat is seeking FCC International Bureau approval to permanently relocate its Intelsat 16 satellite to 76.2 degrees west. The company last year received special temporary authority to relocate the satellite from its licensed home at 58.1 degrees west. In an IB application Monday, it said making the relocation permanent would let it serve customers including those responding to Puerto Rico communications network damage caused by Hurricane Maria. Intelsat said DirecTV has a license to launch and operate a Ku-band satellite at 76 degrees west, but the companies reached an agreement to accommodate Intelsat 16 at 76.2 degrees west, with Intelsat taking "all reasonable steps" to eliminate any interference if any occurs.
Australian satellite IoT startup Myriota raised $15.6 million in a Series A preference share financing, with Boeing being one of the investors, satellite data services company exactEarth said Monday. ExactEarth said it also previously invested in Myriota, getting an 18 percent stake.
Hughes is backing ViaSat on urging the FCC to adopt limits on aggregate equivalent power flux-density (EPFD) limits on Ka-band non-geostationary orbit uplinks (see 1801180060), it said in a docket 16-408 FCC filing Thursday. Hughes supports ViaSat's position the agency revise Section 25.289 of rules so geostationary orbit operators have additional remedies if existing EPFD limits aren't sufficient to protect their satellite networks. Hughes agrees with ViaSat's push for allowing secondary fixed satellite service use of the 19.4-19.6 GHz and 29.1-29.25 GHz bands as long as that use is limited to individually licensed earth station communications and absent evidence that FSS use causes interference to Iridium.
Having multiple earth stations in motion sharing a channel is very different from having a single ESIM operate on that channel continuously, Iridium said in a docket 17-95 FCC filing posted Friday on a meeting with Office of Engineering and Technology staff including Chief Julius Knapp. The company said its interference concern isn't that constantly operating ESIM terminals will overload a non-geostationary orbit satellite receiver but that bursts of short-term interference that disrupt NGSO feeder links will be too frequent. That's why it's important to know the number of ESIMs operating a particular region, and their locations over time, alongside basic operating parameters, when defining realistic exclusion zones, it said. Iridium said it repeated its arguments against allowing ESIM deployment 29.25-29.3 GHz band (see 1801180052).
Boeing remains at odds with other satellite operators about how to read the Section 25.159 of FCC rules for the controlling interest standard. Satellite operators opposing Boeing's transfer of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications to Greg Wyler's SOM1101 argue Wyler has control over OneWeb because he's a member of OneWeb's board, but that runs against a "common sense reading" of rules, Boeing said in an International Bureau proceeding letter posted Wednesday. It said adopting opponents' read the section could lead to "ripple effects" throughout telco and satellite industries in cases where executives sit on other company boards. Boeing said its initial applications were legitimate and not filed for spectrum warehousing or speculation purposes, and the burden is on objectors to prove otherwise. Iridium, Telesat Canada, O3b and SpaceX earlier this month (see here, here, here and here) argued 25.159 said individual directors were attributable interest holders under the multiple-ownership rule and thus OneWeb Chairman Wyler holds attributable interest in that company and its NGSO systems, as well as owning SOM1101. O3b said the FCC should deny the Boeing-to-SOM1101 amendments and dismiss Boeing's NGSO system applications in question since the company has no interest in pursuing them. SOM1101 and Boeing disagree with other satellite companies over the issue of Wyler's control of OneWeb (see 1803010006).
A combination of "nimbler" low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary smallsats alongside "highly capable" larger satellites is a flexible route to tackling shifting consumer, enterprise and government requirements, Northern Sky Research's Carolyn Belle blogged Wednesday. Commercial operators recently announced plans to go that route, including Eutelsat and startup Astranis, joining the ranks of previously announced partnerships such as Intelsat/OneWeb, Telesat's LEO, JSAT/LeoSat and Iridium/Hiber, she said.
BlackSky Global is seeking FCC International Bureau approval for a non-geostationary orbit earth exploration satellite service. In an application Tuesday, it said its initial plans are for four satellites operating in the X, S, L and UHF bands, but its constellation could expand to 60. The company has an experimental license application pending for the first satellite in its constellation, Global-1, and said it plans to seek commercial authorization for it once the test phase is complete.
OneWeb wants FCC approval for nearly tripling its non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite constellation granted U.S. market access in June (see 1706220039) from 720 satellites to 1,980. The International Bureau application Monday follows a pending ask for FCC OK to amend V-band broadband constellation application from 1,280 satellites to 2,560 (see 1801050002). OneWeb said it's seeking the modification in light of relaxed milestone rules for NGSOs adopted in September (see 1709260035), leading it "to reassess what it can achieve under the newly expanded milestone timeframe." The company pointed to those new milestone rules when it asked in January for the V-band constellation changes. In the latest filing, OneWeb said the move to 1,980 satellites is "another logical step" in its business plans of global broadband connectivity by 2027. It said it has market approval for the Ka- and Ku-bands the constellation would employ, and the additional satellites wouldn't increase interference risk. OneWeb said the additional satellites give it more tools for protection from interference and service interruptions coming from in-line events involving other satellite operators. It said it and other NGSO operators already are "expending substantial effort" in good-faith coordination talks. Satellite experts predicted the September NGSO rules changes might lead to other amendments to applications (see 1801100044).
The Broadband Access Coalition urged the FCC to marry a plan by Intel and Intelsat for clearing 3.7 GHz spectrum (see 1710020047) with BAC’s own plan for the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (see 1708080050). “The BAC supports a win-win-win solution,” said a filing in docket 17-183. “The Commission can achieve this win-win-win solution by combining the Intelsat/Intel and BAC proposals. These proposals are not inconsistent with one another.” BAC said the Intel/Intelsat plan on its own isn’t enough. “Standing by itself, the Intelsat/Intel concept will do nothing to provide broadband service to unserved and underserved communities, and therefore, it fails to address Chairman [Ajit] Pai’s top priority: closing the digital divide.” BAC said no one knows how much spectrum fixed satellite service operators need or are using, because the federal database is inadequate. “What Intel appears to be proposing is that FSS satellite operators be given carte blanche to determine (1) how much spectrum they can make available; (2) what frequencies they can make available; and (3) how much to charge for this spectrum,” BAC said. “This is absurd.” AT&T said in a recent filing it supports BAC efforts for the FCC to obtain more information from satellite operators on their use of the band and would go even further. AT&T said, for example, FSS operators should have to provide: “Specification of earth station coordinates and receiver parameters relevant for co-existence studies, including but not limited to reliable 3D coordinates; azimuth and elevation directions of the antenna boresight; receiver antenna pattern, including gain and tilt; center frequency and bandwidth; noise figure; and information on the front end for the receiver to calculate minimum guard and power restrictions from co and adjacent channel operations.”