Intelsat signed a 15-year service agreement with MultiChoice to expand direct-to-home services in sub-Saharan Africa. MultiChoice will use capacity on Intelsat 36, which is expected launch in 2016, Intelsat said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1xIZkju). The satellite will offer Ku- and C-band services at 68.5 degrees east, it said.

U.S. policy goals for promoting a competitive global market for satellite communications services are being met in accordance with the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act, the FCC said in its 15th ORBIT Act report to Congress released Wednesday. Intelsat said it faces numerous and legitimate competitors, “including fiber optic cable, broadband-enabled IP applications, and terrestrial wireless platforms,” the report said (http://bit.ly/1pHWSVz). Intelsat said it faces robust competition “which proves that it does not enjoy any market advantages resulting from its days as an intergovernmental organization,” the report said. Inmarsat invests in new technologies, including its deployment of its fourth-generation network, it said. The company said it continues to introduce new services, the report said. The commission is required to provide annual reports on the impact of the privatization of Inmarsat and Intelsat. Commissioner Ajit Pai reiterated in a statement his support of the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act, HR-2844, as a step toward repealing outdated reporting requirements like the ORBIT Act report (http://bit.ly/1u8iEBZ). The bill would more closely align the FCC’s responsibilities with today’s marketplace, he said. It would give Congress and the public a “one-stop shop for (more) relevant and comprehensive data, facilitating better oversight and more informed policymaking,” he said.

Satcom Direct Communications (SCD) will be a value-added reseller for Inmarsat’s forthcoming Ka-band network, Global Xpress. SCD will market Global Xpress subscription services to the aeronautical sector of the U.S. government market, Inmarsat said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1kmRaTL).

Google will buy Skybox Imaging, a satellite imaging company, for $500 million, it said. The satellites “will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery,” Google said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1kN2iOx). Google said it also would like to use Skybox to help improve Internet access and disaster relief. The announcement follows reports that Google is planning to provide satellite broadband to remote areas (CD June 5 p5).

The U.K. is connected to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) protected communications satellite system by Lockheed Martin. It’s the last of the partner nations to use the satellites for their most important transmissions, Lockheed said Tuesday in a news release (http://lmt.co/1nvGIxK). AEHF is designed to circumvent adversaries’ jammers in most wartime operations, it said. The program is led by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Lockheed said. The U.S., U.K., Canada and the Netherlands will begin operational testing and evaluation, it said.

ViaSat bought NetNearU to expand its ability to deliver high-speed satellite services and Internet access. NetNearU’s network management system for Wi-Fi can extend ViaSat’s Exede to a growing base of subscribers for multiple markets, ViaSat said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1n2vEqb). NetNearU will retain its Bryan, Texas, location, which will establish a ViaSat presence in that state, ViaSat said.

A 2015 budget request from the Senate Appropriations Committee includes support for an auction or assignment of the 1675-1680 MHz band. The committee released the budget report last week (http://1.usa.gov/1rRQhMG). The spectrum band is used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “which NOAA currently uses for weather balloon communications,” the report said. LightSquared asked the FCC to issue an allocation NPRM on shared commercial and federal use of that band (CD April 16 p9). LightSquared completed testing of wireless operations in the band in an effort to allow it to move forward with its stalled terrestrial network plan. The committee report could be a “positive sign” for LightSquared’s spectrum sharing plan, a satellite industry professional said. The committee called for an “expeditious relocation of NOAA’s operations to a different radio frequency band,” it said. NOAA is exploring the feasibility of relocating radiosonde operations from 1675-1680 MHz to 400 MHz “in order to accommodate terrestrial broadband transmitters,” NTIA said in its progress report on spectrum usage plans also released last week (http://1.usa.gov/TnQgki).

Inmarsat plans to deploy a fully integrated air-to-ground network across the EU. The aviation network “will deliver high-speed broadband services to commercial and business aviation passengers across the continent,” Inmarsat said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1tKU1LF). The services will be offered with Inmarsat’s forthcoming Ka-band network, Global Xpress, it said.

AT&T expects cost reduction synergies to exceed a $1.6 billion annually by three years after closing as a result of an approval of its takeover of DirecTV. After the completion of the transaction, its U-verse content costs are expected to be reduced by about 20 percent or more “as compared with our forecasted standalone content costs,” it said in its Form 8-K (http://1.usa.gov/1kBdzl4). With this deal, the company can offer a better bundling opportunity by allowing AT&T to bundle all its Project VIP footprint with video and broadband at “24 million more locations than originally planned,” it said. The economics of the transaction will allow the combined company “to upgrade 2 million additional locations to high speed broadband with Gigapower FTTP (fiber to the premise) and expand our high speed broadband footprint to an additional 13 million locations,” it said. AT&T also said it expects fixed wireless broadband to provide speeds of up to 10-15 Mbps during peak periods “with even higher maximum speeds during off peak times.” The company expects its Project VIP network plan to bring fiber to more than 400,000 new business location by the end of Q2 2014 (CD June 4 p13).

EchoStar urged the FCC to clarify that set-top boxes acting as client devices for indoor wireless access points can operate in the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure, or the U-NII-1 band, at the maximum power level afforded under new Wi-Fi rules. The new rules require a company that is deploying more than 1,000 outdoor access points in the 5.15-5.25 GHz band to submit a letter that acknowledges responsibility for correcting interference. Where EchoStar’s Wi-Fi-enabled set-top boxes are using unlicensed spectrum, it’s essential that they be permitted “to operate at the same maximum power levels that Part 15 affords to access points or other indoor devices that operate in an entirely stationary mode,” it said in a petition for reconsideration in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1p4KyOU). There’s no indication in the NPRM for this proceeding that the FCC intended to suggest otherwise, it said. The new rule also assigns the higher maximum power level of 1 Watt to “indoor access points,” without explicitly acknowledging indoor client devices “that operate in an equally stationary mode and are neither ‘mobile’ or ‘portable’ in the manner of, for example, a smartphone or a tablet,” it said.