Dish Network completed its asset swap with EchoStar, it said in a news release Wednesday. Dish picked up EchoStar's 10 percent stake in Sling TV and wireless spectrum licenses covering four markets in the 28 GHz band, in exchange for Dish's 80 percent economic interest in Hughes Retail Group held in the form of a tracking stock (see 1701310064).

Satellite data capacity prices, declining in recent years, will continue to drop due to ultra-high-throughput satellites coming soon, opening the door to verticals like cellular backhaul and consumer broadband, leading to new industry growth, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra said in an NSR blog post Tuesday. The price levels are making satellite a viable option for 3G and 4G backhaul, while consumer broadband "continues to present a massive opportunity if the right price points and business models are hit," NSR said. Industry needs to develop the ground system that can meet IP needs, service offerings tailored to mobile operators and a retail presence targeting consumers, the firm said.

Pricing will likely be the key factor determining whether flat panel antennas become widely adopted now that a products are to come to market in coming years, and if pricing isn't prioritized, it will be the main reason FPAs won't be successful, said Northern Sky Research analyst Dallas Kasaboski in an NSR blog post Monday. The big investment that has been made in FPA research and development means there's big pressure for commercialization, with performance being the big hurdle to deployment, as evidenced by the lengthy development times "and the current range of readiness of FPA technology," NSR said. It said those performance issues include low throughputs, noise, beam-steering requirements and side-lobe regulation.

After it extends the life of the Intelsat 901 satellite while in orbit, Orbital ATK's Space Logistics' mission extension vehicle MEV-1 will move on and provide similar such services to another geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite, the company said. Orbital ATK Friday filed an application with the FCC International Bureau for authority to launch and operate its MEV-1, which will have a 15-year lifespan, during which it will be able to service multiple GSO satellites with inclination reduction, station keeping and attitude control, orbit relocation and inspections. MEV-1 will have telemetry, tracking and command communications capabilities in the C-band or Ku-band. It will be deployed to Intelsat 901 and raise it to a graveyard orbit 300 km above the GSO arc, with the two satellites operating jointly for at least five years. Orbital ATK said last year it expected to put its first satellite life extension robot into service in late 2018 (see 1604120044).

Anticipating a new broadband mobility offering for some vehicular and maritime applications, Kymeta is asking the FCC International Bureau for a license allowing it to operate up to 5,000 Ku-band vehicle-mounted earth stations and 1,000 Ku-band earth stations on vessels. In a license application Thursday, Kymeta said its KyWay 1 terminal uses its flat panel antenna technology and would be mounted atop vehicles like trains or commercial trucks or on flat surfaces near the highest point of maritime vessels. It said the antennas would work in the 14-14.5 GHz transmit band and the 10.95-11.2 GHz, 11.45-12.2 GHz receive bands.

In a Facebook post Friday, Garmin said it's “devastated by ‘the senseless tragedy that took the life of one of our associates and friends, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, and injured another, Alok Madasani.’” The two Garmin engineers, both 32 and originally from India, were shot Wednesday in a bar near Garmin’s U.S. headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, in what authorities are calling a possible hate crime. Alleged gunman Adam Purinton reportedly told the Garmin engineers to “get out of my country” before shooting the men, along with Ian Grillot, who was injured when he intervened, reported The Kansas City Star. It said Purinton was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Kuchibhotla and with two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shootings of Madasani and Grillot. Madasani was released from the hospital Thursday.

Iridium wants to keep up to 10 of its first-generation broadband constellation satellites in storage orbit while it begins installing its second-generation Next constellation. An FCC International Bureau filing Thursday said Iridium needs 30 days of special temporary authority starting Tuesday for the storage orbit at roughly 763 kilometers, 15 kilometers below mission altitude. It said the first-generation satellites will stay there as spares and eventually be deorbited on a rolling basis. The company said the first-generation satellites won't operate as part of its mission constellation while they're in storage orbit.

The deadline for comments for the next Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (Orbit) Act Report is March 23, replies April 7, the FCC International Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 17-50. The bureau said it's required by the Orbit Act to report annually to the House Commerce and International Relations committees and the Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees. Chairman Ajit Pai said the requirement of annually reporting on the privatization status of Inmarsat and Intelsat is pointless since the two former intergovernmental satellite organizations long have been privatized (see 1506100062).

Any move to give co-primary regulatory status to federal government earth stations communicating with commercial satellites should make clear they're subject to the same procedural, coordination and technical rules as commercial licensees, the Satellite Industry Association said in a series of meetings with FCC eighth-floor staffers. In ex parte filings posted Tuesday in docket 13-115, SIA recapped meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn (see here, here and here) at which it said any action on NTIA's urging the FCC move on its 2013 space policy rulemaking (see 1610040019) needs to include language in the U.S. table of frequency allocations stating primary federal allocations for fixed satellite service is for earth stations only. SIA said the FCC should make clear it has exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over the co-primary allocations and that shared NTIA jurisdiction doesn't apply to processing of earth station applications. EchoStar also urged federal earth station operations be subject to the same requirements as commercial earth stations and that the FCC reject NTIA-proposed exemptions (see 1610140055). Representatives from SIA, SpaceX, O3b, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and EchoStar attended the meetings.

The forthcoming spectrum frontiers FCC public notice on implementation of the 2016 order would be a good place to tackle numerous questions about how the rules are to be implemented, ViaSat Associate General Counsel-Regulatory Affairs Chris Murphy told Chairman Ajit Pai aide Rachel Bender, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 14-177. Boeing, in its own filing Friday in the docket on a meeting with Bender, said it also discussed spectrum frontiers and the possibility of V-band spectrum sharing. Boeing representatives at the meeting included Bruce Chesley, vice president-global broadband, and Audrey Allison, senior director-frequency management systems.