Whether the FCC should enforce orbital debris requirements on commercial and private satellites, since its mission has little to do with space, is a big open question in orbital debris mitigation policy, said Aerospace Corp.'s Center for Space Policy and Strategy (CSPS) in a white paper Thursday. The paper covers various agencies' space regulations and is aimed at nontraditional missions seeking regulatory preapproval. CSPS also said there has been confusion among experimental and federally connected missions about whether to go through the FCC or NTIA for spectrum access.

Reasonable reading of Dish Network's employee arbitration agreement would find it restricts employees' rights to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB said in a docket 17-60368 appellee brief (in Pacer) filed Friday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dish is appealing an April NLRB order that its arbitration agreement's confidentiality provision violates the National Labor Relations Act (see 1709250001). The NLRB in its brief also said Dish's desire to protect personal information that comes up in an arbitration proceeding could be handled with a narrower rule than its requirement everything in those proceedings be confidential. And it said Dish's claim it wanted to prevent rumors didn't outweigh the interference with a disciplined employee's right to discuss that discipline. Dish didn't comment Friday.

ViaSat consolidated all its sub-brands, such as Exede and Yonder, into the ViaSat master brand, in a rebranding campaign, it said Thursday. It rolled out a new logo. Expanding into consumer, aviation and maritime markets, "There is greater value for us to present one unified brand," said CEO Mark Dankberg.

Since KMTP-TV San Francisco sent its must-carry election via priority express mail instead of the certified mail specified in FCC rules, the carriage complaint filed by licensee Minority TV Project should be dismissed, Dish Network said in a docket 17-313 response posted Thursday. It said the KMTP complaint was premature since the broadcaster hasn't written Dish indicating why it believes the company isn't living up to its carriage obligations, as FCC rules mandate. Station owner Minority TV Project, in its complaint earlier this month, said Dish was following a "hyper-technical" reading of the rules regarding mailing (see 1711130057). Counsel for KMTP didn't comment.

The EchoStar/Dish Network petition for writ of certiorari in its fight with Florida over its communications services tax, along with related briefs, will be distributed to Supreme Court justices Jan. 5, the docket said Wednesday. Dish is appealing a Florida Supreme Court decision in April rejecting a 2005 lawsuit alleging the tax violates the Commerce Clause by charging a higher rate on direct broadcast satellite than on cable TV (see 1711280001).

The EchoStar 105/SES-11 satellite is in its 105 degree west orbital slot and available for commercial service, EchoStar said Wednesday. The Ku- and C-band satellite was launched Oct. 11 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it said.

Orbital ATK's shareholders OK'd Northrup Grumman's proposed buy of the satellite company, Northrup Grumman said Wednesday. It said it expects the deal to close before Q3, after getting regulatory approvals. The $9.2 billion sale isn't considered likely to face significant regulatory concerns (see 1709180041).

All 10 Iridium Next satellites for the broadband satellite constellation's fourth launch are in processing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the launch scheduled for Dec. 22, the company said Tuesday. It said the launch will be the midway point of its SpaceX launch campaign and the first of two Iridium Next launches employing reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. It said with that launch, 40 Next constellation satellites will be in orbit, more than half the 66 required for an operational constellation. It contracted with SpaceX for eight launches to carry a total of 75 Next satellites into orbit, including nine spares.

SiriusXM and a California motorist are at odds over a lawsuit alleging violations of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) for sending out solicitations and calling new buyers of satellite radio-enabled cars. In a docket 5:17-cv-01724 motion (in Pacer) for summary judgment Monday in U.S. District Court in Riverside, the company said it's not a DPPA violation to access or use information provided by a consumer pursuant to a business transaction, such as buying a car, and a motor vehicle record under the DPPA doesn't include information obtained from a source other than the department of motor vehicles. In a motion (in Pacer) to certify the class, plaintiff James Andrews said the name and address information in the dealer management system came from his California driver's license, thus constituting a motor vehicle record. Andrews said the proposed class could number more than 100,000.

The Florida Supreme Court analyzed discriminatory effects of the state's communications services tax (CST) based purely on the basis of domicile, an approach conflicting with rulings by most courts and with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, said EchoStar Satellite/Dish Network in a U.S. Supreme Court docket 17-379 reply brief Monday. The company is appealing the Florida court's April opinion tossing out a 2005 lawsuit arguing the CST violates the Commerce Clause by charging a higher rate on direct broadcast satellite than on cable TV; the court said neither cable nor DBS qualified as an in-state interest, negating the satellite companies' discriminatory effect argument, and there's no evidence state lawmakers adopted the CST with discriminatory purpose. EchoStar said the morass of Commerce Clause doctrine makes it "vital for the Court to step in" to give certainty over divided courts looking at the constitutionality of state laws differentiating between interstate competitors. The Florida Department of Revenue, in a brief filed earlier this month in opposition to the DBS petition for writ of certiorari, said it overlooks that Florida taxes satellite differently because Congress prohibited local taxation of satellite services in the Telecom Act, so the state shares such tax receipts with localities. It ignores that satellite's overall CST burden is less than cable TV's, the state said.