Sirius XM, which is defending itself in multiple class-action lawsuits about how it calls customers, took its complaints on interpretation of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act to the FCC, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 02-278. The meeting followed a filing last month in which Sirius laid out its objections to how the FCC has implemented the automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) sections of that law. The FCC is expected to clarify the definition of an ATDS later this year (see 1505210034). Such a clarification to include a preview dialer -- which presents information about a customer to an agent who then dials by manually using a mouse to click the number on a screen -- as an ATDS should include language protecting those who up until now have used preview dialers in compliance with FCC rules and the Consumer Protection Act, the satellite company said.

A Hawaiian Airlines-operated Boeing jet is the first commercial aircraft using Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband Safety offering, which provides transmission of data and messages to and from air traffic management and air navigation service providers to flights, and IP connectivity to the cockpit, Inmarsat said. SwiftBroadband is expected to be commercially available starting early next year.

SES is rolling out a video content management service, FluidMedia, aimed at video producers and distributors. FluidMedia is being unveiled at ANGA COM 2015, continuing through Thursday in Cologne, Germany, and allows for control of ingestion, transcoding, quality checks and delivery to the Internet or VOD platforms, as well as the management and customization of metadata such as licensing information or trailers, SES said in a Monday release.

Intelsat is launching its Flex service that will tie its terrestrial Intelsat One broadband network and its forthcoming Epic satellite constellation together to provide broadband service for airline passengers. The first of the Epic satellites is expected to launch in early 2016, it said. Flex will become available as that satellite fleet becomes operational, the company said.

More consumers will get AT&T's GigaPower wireline broadband -- and without any public subsidies from the Connect America Fund -- if AT&T's DirecTV merger is allowed to go through, executives of both companies told FCC officials, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-90. AT&T's GigaPower service will extend to an additional 2 million locations within four years of the close of the deal, and AT&T periodically will give updates to the FCC on the status of that broadband rollout that show that work is being done without CAF money, company officials said. AT&T also continues to stand by its plan to offer a 6 Mbps stand-alone broadband service for three years after closing, company officials said. That's slower than the FCC-set benchmark speed 25 Mbps that some opponents of the deal had tried to set as a condition for the merger, but 6 Mbps "would be more widely available than a service of higher speeds," the company said. AT&T also attempted to rebut arguments about another proposed condition setting up how it would market that stand-alone broadband service -- a requirement that "would only prevent AT&T from adapting to market conditions and making the sales experience as efficient and responsive to customer needs as it can," it said.

Iridium satellite services and gear are being distributed in South Korea, the satellite company said in a Thursday news release, saying it signed a distribution deal with South Korean navigation and communications equipment company Arion Communication. Arion will resell such products as Iridium’s Pilot wireless service for ships and its Go! Smartphone. The company’s Certus broadband service, which will come from its NEXT satellite network set to begin going into orbit later this year, will follow, Iridium said.

Cogent Communications is renewing its request that the FCC require AT&T to keep broadband interconnection points clear as part of its proposed takeover of DirecTV. "The quality of [consumers' broadband] connection ... depends entirely on AT&T's interconnections with the edge providers that provide such content or their intermediaries that deliver the content AT&T customers select," the Internet service provider said in comments posted Wednesday in docket 14-90. Ensuring AT&T's network can handle such traffic won't require unlimited network augmentation, merely additional ports -- costing $10,000 per 10 Gbps port -- and slightly more space and power to run them, Cogent said, saying AT&T not committing to some kind of congestion elimination plan "calls into question their pledge to ensure unimpeded broadband service."

Hughes Network Systems is pitching its own specifications for the latency tests to check the ability of the rural broadband network build-out envisioned by Connect America Fund Phase II to be used for such purposes as VoIP. Those specifications include a Web page loading time standard of five seconds, ensuring “all technologies providing speeds at or above CAF Phase II requirements are able to meet the requirement,” Hughes said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. Hughes’ proposed specifications also include an R-Factor score of at least 52. R-Factor is a measure of VoIP call quality. Going with 52 “will allow competition by providers using the current terrestrial technologies (such as fiber, cable, and high speed DSL) as well as other technologies (such as LTE or fixed satellite services),” Hughes said. Hughes’ filing comes just days after a telecom networking equipment company proposed an R-Factor score of 80 as a threshold and questioned the methodology Hughes previously had discussed (see 1505290037).

The FCC set deadlines for comments on LightSquared's bid for regulatory approval of its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the transfer of its licenses and authorizations to its reorganized self. The FCC on Monday issued a 10-page public notice in IB docket 15-126. The notice gives a brief rundown of the reorganizational changes for the company, including ownership of its common stock and makeup of the new board. LightSquared said it also wants a declaratory ruling from the FCC permitting foreign ownership of its U.S.-organized parent company, New LightSquared. Foreign firms would hold indirect equity interests in New LightSquared of 40 percent to 70 percent. The deadline for initial comments is July 1, with the deadline for responses and opposition to petitions being July 13. Responses to those responses, and to oppositions, are due by July 20.

BT Group renewed and expanded services on three Intelsat satellites, spanning the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions, said a news release from Intelsat. BT will leverage capacity from three of Intelsat’s leading satellite neighborhoods to distribute programming for BBC World Service, the release said. BT will have access to Intelsat’s teleport facility in Napa, California, along with the company’s terrestrial network, IntelsatOne, it said.