The Texas Department of Information Resources gave EchoStar-owned Hughes Network Systems an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for data communications, networking equipment and related services, the company said Monday. Hughes will provide digital signage through applications like Digital Bulletin Boards, Breakroom TV and interactive kiosks, and provide a statewide learning management system from its HughesON Digital Media Solutions suite. The initial contract lasts two years, with the option to extend for two more one-year terms, Hughes said. “By leveraging digital signage in combination with learning management, the state can deliver educational and logistical information wherever it's needed via a powerful video-based system,” Hughes Vice President-Government Relations Tony Bardo said in a news release. “This contract vehicle also complements our existing contract with Texas DIR, on which we offer satellite broadband to rural schools and agencies, further adding depth and breadth to our educational technology offerings.”

The Supreme Court granted DirecTV’s motion for cert appealing a California Second District Court of Appeals decision on a class-action lawsuit brought against the company over early termination fees, the high court’s website said. DirecTV had sought to have the litigation dismissed in favor of arbitration but the U.S. district and appeals courts ruled that despite a customer agreement that compelled arbitration, the plaintiffs could bring a class-action lawsuit against the satellite carrier.

Globalstar's broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) "is a good neighbor" to Wi-Fi operations on IEEE 802.11 Channel 11 and other channels and Bluetooth device operations within an unlicensed band at 2400-2483.5 MHz, the company said. It cited a recently completed TLPS demonstration at the agency's Technology Experience Center, in a filing Friday in docket 13-213. Bluetooth, cable and other interests have criticized that demo (see 1503190025). "Globalstar’s demonstration showed that Bluetooth-enabled devices, including a heart rate monitor, wireless speaker, and various computer mouses, worked without any service impact in the presence of TLPS," said the filing on the satellite company's meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. "Consumers will benefit significantly from the provision of TLPS across 22 megahertz of additional broadband spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band." Globalstar said it seeks adoption of the commission's proposed TLPS rules.

The global mobile satellite services market is projected to be worthmore than $3.2 billion through 2020, said a report from TechSci Research. The demand for mobile satellite services grew at a considerable pace over the past few years due to geo-political conflicts in Asia and North Africa, the report said.

BNP Paribas and Globalstar executives met with FCC officials to rebut criticism of the satellite company's demonstration at the agency of terrestrial low-power service (see 1503130015), while a critic of the company's TLPS request slammed the demo. Globalstar’s filings and website "perfectly illustrate why their demonstration system should not be used to decide policy: their 'Bluetooth-TLPS Demonstration' system was unlikely to cause interference ~90% of the time," said Gerst Capital in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-213. "Their conditions were far from challenging, and do not represent real world interference scenarios." Others who observed the test have said similar things, while Globalstar has called Gerst a short seller that profits from creating doubt (see 1503130016). At their meeting with front-office International Bureau officials, representatives from BNP Paribas, which has said it's an agent to some Globalstar lenders, and executives from the satellite company supported TLPS. The commission should "expeditiously" adopt rules it proposed in 2013 to let Globalstar provide TLPS mobile broadband service in its spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz and adjacent, unlicensed spectrum, said representatives of the bank. Globalstar demonstrated that TLPS is compatible with existing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operations in the 2.4 GHz band, said representatives including CEO Jay Monroe, Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Clary and General Counsel Barbee Ponder. Globalstar and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group "mutually agreed on the operational parameters for the Bluetooth demonstrations," said the company in a filing posted Thursday to the docket. "CableLabs’ TLPS/Wi-Fi demonstration set-up was in no sense representative of a real-world deployment," said Globalstar of the cable research and development group, which like the Bluetooth group has expressed concerns about the demo. "Any results provided by CableLabs in this proceeding should be entirely discounted."

DirecTV added 22 new out-of-home (OOH) live streaming channels to DirecTV Everywhere, it said in a news release Tuesday. The channels from OWN, Smithsonian, Turner Broadcasting, Univision, Viacom and others, bring its OOH offering to almost 90 live streaming channels. Customers can watch programming from multiple devices, it said.

Bluetooth had asked Globalstar to run its terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) demonstration at the FCC at 20 decibel-milliwatts (dBm), instead of the maximum 28 dBm, said Barbee Ponder, Globalstar general counsel, in an interview at the satellite week conference in Washington. “We ran at the power limit one would expect to see in an indoor environment,” he said. “We could run at 28, it just wasn’t a real-world deployment in that scenario.” The Belkin access point CableLabs used in its test is “notoriously unstable,” Ponder said. The commission didn’t request additional demos, he said. “Their questions were satisfied” after the demo, he said. Additional lab work will soon be conducted at the commission to characterize the TLPS access points, and measure its power limits and its emissions profile, he said. Globalstar plans to have more demos to show real-world deployment of TLPS, he said. CableLabs and others have criticized the testing (see 1503130015).

GAO urged Congress to consider assessing statutory limits on address data to encourage creation of a national address database, said a report released Monday. The Office of Management and Budget should increase its oversight of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and federal agency initiatives, GAO said. Agencies agreed with the recommendations and showed implementation plans, it said. The estimated geospatial dataset investment by federal agencies and state governments is billions of dollars, but this is understated since agencies don't always track such investments, including billions spent on earth-observing satellites that produce a large amount of geospatial data, GAO said. The FGDC and OMB created an initiative where agencies will annually identify and report geospatial-related investments, as part of the FY 2017 budget process, it said. The data are sometimes collected multiple times by different entities, and statutory restrictions that agencies face on the sharing of certain federal address data can restrict data sharing, it said. FGDC initiated plans to coordinate geospatial data collection with state governments, but state officials GAO contacted aren't satisfied with the efforts, it said. Eight of the committee's 32 member agencies have started registering with the clearinghouse 59 percent of the geospatial data they view as critical, GAO said. "There will continue to be duplicative efforts to obtain and maintain these data at every level of government," until there is effective coordination among national spatial data infrastructure, GAO said.

ViaSat affiliate ViaSat Technologies signed a credit agreement for a $525 million direct loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for the ViaSat-2 high-capacity Ka-band communications satellite, ViaSat said in a news release Thursday. ViaSat Technologies will use the loan to finance about 85 percent of construction, insurance and launch for ViaSat-2 and exposure fees for the facility, it said. ViaSat-2, being manufactured by Boeing, will expand coverage for more than 40 countries in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, and aeronautical and maritime routes between Europe and North America, it said. The satellite will double the bandwidth of ViaSat-1 and will be launched by SpaceX in late summer 2016, it said.

Consumer Watchdog hails the FTC’s deceptive advertising lawsuit against DirecTV (see 1503110042) and wants the FCC to require that DirecTV “cease its anti-consumer policies as a condition” of approving AT&T’s buy of it, the California nonprofit said Friday. Consumer Watchdog sued DirecTV on similar allegations in 2008 in a case that’s still pending in a California appellate court. Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, has said the complaint against DirecTV “has nothing to do” with any regulatory “evaluation” of AT&T’s planned buy of DirecTV, “and I have no comment on how it might affect it.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James in San Francisco has assigned the FTC’s complaint to the court’s “Alternative Dispute Resolution Multi-Option Program,” her March 12 scheduling order showed. The program's goal “is early, cost-effective and fair resolution of civil cases” through one of several “processes,” including arbitration or a settlement conference with a magistrate judge, the court’s website shows. James’ scheduling order sets a May 21 deadline for ADR process selection, to be followed by a June 11 initial case management conference.