With so many people in the world seeking broadband access "for information, entertainment and commerce," very few are finding themselves “on the unserved side of the digital device,” EchoStar CEO Michael Dugan said on an earnings call. “We believe over the next 10 to 15 years many of them will require this capability,” Dugan said. “Wireless and fiber infrastructure should be an important part of this transition, so as a company,” EchoStar sees itself as “well-positioned with these technologies,” he said Friday. EchoStar’s “extensive video expertise” recently enabled Dish Network to introduce its Sling TV over-the-top service in the U.S., and “it would be natural for us to leverage this experience and technology platform in other areas of the world,” Dugan said. Monday, Dish, also chaired by Charlie Ergen, reported Q3 results and signaled in the minds of some analysts that it might not participate in the FCC incentive auction (see 1511090015).

Inmarsat subsidiary ISAT US wants to add an additional earth station terminal type for linking to its Global Xpress satellite network. In a license modification request filed Friday with the FCC International Bureau, ISAT said it wanted to modify its maritime license allowing operation of Ka-band blanket licensed terminals on maritime vessels to include its Cobham Sea Tel model Sailor 60 GX. The Sailor GX, like other earth terminals already covered by the maritime license, would communicate with the Inmarsat-5 F2 satellite, and would operate in the same frequencies of 19.7-20 GHz and 29.5-30 GHz, ISAT said. In its application, ISAT said it sought authority to use earth stations subject to its maritime license, as well as the new antenna terminal model, within the contiguous U.S. and U.S. territories, and on fixed and mobile offshore platforms.

Skynet Satellite seeks special temporary authority to do in-orbit testing of the Telstar 12V satellite. The testing is to start Dec. 1 and be done while the satellite drifts from its postlaunch location of 16 degrees west to 15.7 degrees west as it heads to its authorized slot at 15 degrees west, Skynet said in an FCC International Bureau request filed Wednesday. The testing can't be done at 15 degrees west because of risk of interfering with services carried on Telstar 12, Skynet said. Those services will be transferred to Telstar 12V after the in-orbit testing and the co-location of 12 and 12V at 15 degrees west, Skynet said. That traffic transfer is expected to be done by the end of Q1, at which time 12 will either be relocated or deorbited, Skynet said.

LightSquared wants to open up the 1675-1680 MHz band used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for commercial wireless sharing. In a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 12-340, the satellite company submitted an analysis it commissioned regarding NOAA's use of the band and results of a survey it conducted of end-users of NOAA data and services. LightSquared also said the FCC should issue a public notice seeking comment on the analysis, possible effects of commercial operations on non-NOAA users, and ways of addressing those effects -- all with the goal of an NPRM on the band in early 2016 regarding partial allocation of the spectrum for commercial use. That would help meet a goal in the Obama administration's 2010 memorandum pushing for the FCC and Commerce Department to jointly make 500 MHz of federal and nonfederal spectrum available for mobile and fixed wireless broadband, LightSquared said. The memo suggested a 10-year time frame. Commercial use of the spectrum would mean "lower wireless prices for consumers, more services by wireless companies and greater opportunities for innovation," LightSquared said, adding that any costs to NOAA users of getting data by alternative means "would be a small fraction of that amount." The analysis by Alion Science and Technology about the compatibility of commercial wireless with NOAA's use of the spectrum showed the two could coexist by relocating some NOAA radiosondes -- which contain atmospheric and temperature sensors and are attached to NOAA weather balloons -- and setting up protection and coordination zones, LightSquared said. The satellite company said it currently operates a network at 1670-1675 MHz, which it shares with NOAA sensor data links. LightSquared said it began talking this summer to users of NOAA data and products about potential effects. "Commercial LTE wireless operations in the 1,675-1,680 MHz band would have little or no impact on many non-NOAA users and ... reasonable alternative means exist for any users that might be impacted," LightSquared said. It said the FCC should seek input on a variety of issues, including what entities directly access NOAA data or services delivered via satellite that could feel effects of commercial transmissions over the spectrum, what other services could they employ for similar data or services, and how have they been affected by commercialization of nearby bands such as AWS-3. NOAA didn't comment.

Intelsat and Sky Perfect JSAT agreed to jointly put up a satellite with C-band and high throughput Ku-band capacity to serve mobility and broadband connectivity demands in the Asia-Pacific region, Intelsat said in a news release Wednesday. Horizons 3e is expected to launch in the second half of 2018, operate at 169 degrees east and round out Intelsat's EpicNG global platform, Intelsat said. Horizons 3e would be the fourth satellite jointly owned by JSAT and Intelsat, following Horizons-1, Horizons-2 and Intelsat 15/JCSAT-85.

The satellite industry is in disagreement about what it says are allowable rise over thermal limits that could come with air-to-ground mobile broadband in the 14-14.5 GHz band. While Qualcomm has said such aeronautical service broadband could safely increase the rise over thermal -- the ratio between the total interference and thermal noise -- by as much as 1 percent, the safe figure that would protect fixed satellite service (FSS) uplinks is actually 0.33 percent, Intelsat and SES said in a joint FCC filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-114. The companies said the satellite industry previously indicated FSS interference from all noise sources should be capped at a 1 percent increase noise floor, going by ITU-Radiocommunication (ITU-R) recommendations, but those calculations didn't take into account additional secondary services in parts of the 14-14.5 GHz band -- tracking and data relay satellite service and federal fixed and mobile services. SpaceX in a joint letter in October with Qualcomm said it thinks Qualcomm's commitments would protect SpaceX's nongeostationary satellite system. But those calculations also failed to take into account those secondary users in the band, said Intelsat and SES. "That pact cannot change the laws of physics, the Table of Allocations or the ITU-R Recommendations." Thus any authorization of an air-to-ground mobile service in that band should follow ITU-R recommendations and give it no more than 0.33 percent rise in thermal noise, they said. Qualcomm didn't comment Wednesday. In a 2014 filing in the docket, the company said the transmit power levels already proposed by the FCC will ensure the AMS rise over thermal limits is less than 0.5 percent.

The Supreme Court shot down a pair of appeals by Dish Network and AT&T's DirecTV on how states tax their services versus how cable subscribers are taxed. The justices denied the direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) companies' petitions for certiorari Monday after meeting in conference Friday. The companies sued Tennessee Commissioner of Revenue Richard Roberts and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue over those states' tax structures: Tennessee in 2003 over its pay-TV sales tax regime, which gives cable subscribers a tax exemption on the first $15 of their bills but no such break to satellite-TV subscribers, and Massachusetts seven years later after the state enacted a satellite-only excise tax. The DBS companies filed writs of certiorari after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sided with the state in an appeal and the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to review the case (see 1510220016).

Iridium now expects the first launches of its Next satellite constellation in April, with the constellation to be fully operational by end of 2017, CEO Matt Desch said Thursday, announcing Q3 results. The company previously said it expected the first Next launch to come in December (see 1510230011). The new launch timeframe is due to "an updated delivery schedule" from Thales Alenia Space, Desch said.

Scripps Network Interactive and SES signed a deal to expand and move Scripps' North American distribution platform to a pair of SES space stations near the center of the orbital arc over North America, the satellite company said in a news release Wednesday. According to SES, SES-1 at 101 degrees west will deliver Scripps's HD content, while SES-3 at 103 degrees west will help in distribution of standard definition feeds.

Eutelsat ordered a high-throughput satellite from Thales Alenia Space as part of its effort to bring broadband connectivity services to Africa, it said in a news release Wednesday. The satellite, using Thales' new Spacebus Neo platform, will launch in 2019 with the aim of providing at least 75 Gbps of capacity across a 65-spotbeam network, Eutelsat said. The satellite follows a joint announcement by Eutelsat and Facebook earlier this month that they plan to use Spacecom's AMOS-6 satellite to jointly provide broadband in much of Sub-Saharan Africa (see 1510050037).