Matt Daneman

The multichannel video programming distributor universe is either a well-functioning competitive market or rife with thumb-on-the-scale practices that favor some, say competing portraits in replies due Monday night on the FCC 18th video competition report. Multiple commenters in initial filings last month urged more market deregulation (see 1609220005).

Many expect to see AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner pass regulatory muster, though even AT&T says it expects conditions. Others see it facing particularly steep odds, and there are questions about what voluntary conditions -- if any -- the companies might put forward. The purchases raises a variety of possible regulatory issues (see 1610210043), and Capitol Hill is looking at the deal, too (see 1610240053).

The FCC International Bureau is proposing updates to Part 2 and 25 rules specifically to facilitate deployment of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service constellations. An FCC official told us the NPRM put on circulation Friday also seeks comment on technical rules for spectrum sharing. The official said the agency asks for input on its current rule governing in-line events -- when two NGSO systems come within 10 degrees of aligning with each other, necessitating either coordination or splitting of spectrum -- and whether that 10-degree rule should be modified. It also seeks comment on a SpaceX proposal on the FCC's rule requiring an NGSO constellation to be completely launched within six years of license grant, with the company pushing for a lower milestone of 75 percent of the constellation, the official said. The NPRM likely won't be on a future monthly meeting agenda but voted on circulation, the official said.

AT&T buying Time Warner likely would face regulatory concerns about programming and also could be a springboard for regulators to dive into other issues, like zero rating, industry lawyers and experts told us Friday. Given the increased regulatory attention paid to competitiveness and transaction issues in recent years, "I don't think they are necessarily going to have smooth sailing," said Public Knowledge attorney John Bergmayer. Some question whether the FCC would even have a role in overseeing the possible deal, but AT&T's last major acquisition was national satellite multichannel TV provider DirecTV. AT&T and TW didn't comment Friday. Several news reports Friday suggested a deal could be announced as early as the weekend.

Opposition to and criticism of AT&T's buying Time Warner have begun, including from some influential Democrats and Republicans, among them GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on the campaign trail. That was even before any deal was announced. Confirmation came from the companies around 8 p.m. EDT Saturday, saying the transaction is worth $108.7 billion.

Repeatedly pointing to gains by the terrestrial wireless industry, satellite executives at a Thursday Dentons event said their industry should make a better case to regulators and others for its access to spectrum, especially in light of the preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019. "Saying 'no' to sharing is absolutely not an answer," said EchoStar Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner. People batted around ideas for unifying the satellite industry by bringing back the long-defunct Satellite Communications Users Conference or another means.

With GPS Adjacent-Band Compatibility (ABC) Assessment L-band testing done, the next step is coming up with tolerable equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) levels to protect GPS from adjacent band interference, the Transportation Department told us Tuesday. Those tolerable EIRP levels will come from radiated test interference tolerance masks, use case scenarios representing relevant applications and services, and propagation modeling, Transportation said. The agency presented its ABC testing results Friday at a workshop and said there are no further plans for testing. That testing comes as Ligado has been trying to get FCC approval for its broadband terrestrial low-power service in spectrum adjacent to GPS and arguing that the proposed power and out-of-band emission levels protect GPS (see 1602250032). Ligado in a statement said it's "glad that DOT's nearly two years of testing is finally over. Now the government agencies with authority over our nation’s spectrum policy, the FCC and the NTIA, can take this information and all the other studies into account and make critical decisions. It is odd that the DOT study did not address at all the actual harm to consumers, as the other studies did. DOT also made clear that it recommends a mask based on the worst device it could find. Others will have to decide whether that is sound policy.” DOT said the reacquisition tests that were part of wired testing showed that for some receivers, there wasn't significant margin beyond the interference power causing 1 dB degradation. The degradation was particularly apparent for lower-power GPS signals, like those that would be associated with operating in challenged environments such as urban canyons or under foliage or with low-elevation satellites in open skies, DOT said. When asked about what its test findings might mean for actual device performance, the agency said the wired testing results "suggest exceeding the 1 dB interference level can adversely affect receiver performance by slowing satellite acquisition times." The department said radiated test results -- which show "the more comprehensive view of adjacent band interference causing a 1 dB degradation" in carrier to noise ratio -- were nonetheless "in good agreement ... when the performance of the active antennas were taken into consideration."

Satellite and terrestrial broadband interests are squaring off over Boeing's petition for allocation of 50.4-51.4 GHz and 51.4-52.4 GHz for fixed satellite service uplinks to service its planned massive V-band satellite constellation (see 1606230050). With numerous calls that the request be folded into the spectrum frontiers Further NPRM, the likely next step is that the FCC will do just that, interested parties told us Tuesday.

The burgeoning small satellite launch industry sees signs of big commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, but the federal regulatory structure hasn't caught up, said Richard DalBello, Virgin Galactic vice president-business development and government affairs, at a Washington Space Business Roundtable talk. The regulatory hurdles include uncertainty on oversight of payloads and "pretty archaic" rules for debris mitigation, he said Friday. If even a fraction of the planned small satellite and cubesat constellations end up getting launched, the smallsat launcher business "is going to be a great business to be in," DalBello said. Thirty-seven different entities are developing smallsat launchers, said Tauri Group Managing Partner Carissa Christensen. Given both commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, DalBello said, "the market is big enough for multiple people to have great businesses." Vector Space Systems expects to be at operational capacity by the end of 2018, Chief Technology Officer John Garvey said. He said the company is trying to build its business around doing a minimum of 12 launches a year to be sustainable. Rocket Lab expects to begin commercial launches by Q2, said Brad Schneider, executive vice president-U.S. operations. "We will survive on well less" than 12 a year, he said. Virgin Galactic expects to begin launcher service by early 2018, and hopes to ramp up to a rate of a couple of launches a month, DalBello said. He said Virgin Galactic's current launch site is in Mojave, California, and it's scouting for a near-equatorial launch site. He said its Long Beach launcher assembly plant is being built for capacity of 24 launches a year.

Hammered by criticism from the electronic gaming industry springing from a Microsoft study, Globalstar fired back Friday, saying the Microsoft data are "biased, unreliable and should be accorded no weight." Satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar told us the Globalstar/Microsoft back-and-forth "is a game of he said/she said," with dueling studies being "par for the course" in hotly contested proceedings. Regardless, Farrar said, the likelihood the FCC might act on Globalstar's TLPS application this year looks increasingly slim.