Inmarsat shareholders signed off on a proposed $3.39 billion purchase by an investment consortium, the satellite operator said Friday. It said that pending court approval, the deal should close in Q4. The takeover was announced in March (see 1903190057).

Satellite operators largely agree with opening parts of the Ku and Ka bands to earth stations in motion communications with geostationary orbit (GSO) fixed satellite service (FSS) satellites, in FCC docket 17-95 replies posted Thursday. Expanding frequencies available to geostationary ESIM networks will allow for more intensive spectrum use, SES/O3b and Intelsat said. Many agree that concerns about downlinks interfering with protected passive scientific observations at 10.6-11.7 GHz and 18.6-18.8 GHz are off base. ViaSat said they're already protected by FCC rules and that ESIMs in those bands would be in receive mode only anyway. Boeing said operators won't be launching additional GSO FSS satellites to increase capacity because of limits on satellite spacing. It said ESIMs have sufficient interference protections from fixed service networks. Iridium urged disregarding any "out-of-left-field request" to let FSS ESIMs in the 19.4-19.6 band as beyond the scope of the NPRM while there's no justification for swerving from agency precedent that the band be limited to non-GSO mobile satellite service feeder downlinks.

The FCC International Bureau, having signed off on SpaceX's relocating much of its planned non-geostationary orbit mega constellation of broadband satellites to lower orbit (see 1904300182), now OK'd related special temporary authority for telemetry, tracking and command operations during orbit raising and testing of the communications payload of 75 satellites about to be launched. Thursday's grant, responding to opposition from OneWeb (see 1904190011), said such early operations and testing are routinely granted through STA for geostationary satellites and ensure proper functioning. Approval was conditioned on operations on an unprotected and non-harmful interference basis. SpaceX must shut down operations immediately if it's notified of such interference.

Opening up the 11 and 19 GHz bands to earth station in motions is fine as long as any rules changes don't let ESIM receivers get protection from fixed service transmitters even if the 19 GHz ESIMs operate on an otherwise co-primary basis with FS, the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said in docket 17-95 comments Wednesday. ESIMs don't need protection in those bands and FS protection of ESIMs, with their unpredictable movement, isn't feasible, FWCC said.

After its T16 satellite launches June 20, AT&T's DirecTV wants it to go to a different orbital slot. In an FCC International Bureau posting Wednesday, DirecTV asked for an authorization modification allowing T16 to operate at 100.85 degrees west instead of 102.7 degrees west and to provide direct broadcast satellite service from there. It said at 100.85 degrees west, T16 would replace or supplement its T8, T9S and T4S satellites and use the same DBS frequencies. In a related bureau filing, DirecTV asked for a 30-day special temporary authority to do in-orbit testing of T16 and to drift it to 100.85 degrees west.

Cubesat company Spire is scaling back low earth orbit constellation plans. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, Spire asked to amend its pending market access application (see 1903220002) to cover 636 Minas satellites and condition or modify its license grant to authorize the launch of no more than 236 of its phase II U.S.-authorized satellites, instead of the currently authorized 872.

Satellite refueling could be routine within a decade, followed by satellites being built for in-orbit servicing of their hardware, reducing the need for launching replacement satellites, Aerospace Corp. said Monday. It said a big barrier to the in-orbit servicing market has been the "chicken and egg" problem of satellite -- the lack of servicing service providers makes satellite operators unwilling to pay for features that would make servicing easier, while companies interested in the servicing business need a big enough market to justify the capital needed to develop the servicers. Aerospace said "rapid progress" is being made in developing the market. It said satellite servicing capability in the next five to 10 years likely will be limited to inspection, orbit modification and maintenance, and refueling, and in-orbit manufacturing and assembly capabilities are likely to follow.

ABS executives and Small Satellite Operators counsel told Commissioner Mike O’Rielly the C-band relocation process must move quickly so the SSOs “can utilize their FCC licensed C-band satellites to provide service to customers.” They said any plan must compensate all SSOs for the loss of “valuable spectrum,” encourage prompt relocation of earth station operators through the use of substantial incentive payments, cover their relocation costs and give taxpayers “a fair share of the proceeds generated by any reallocation of C-band spectrum.” The operators argued a plan like T-Mobile's for an incentive auction isn’t legal. “By forcing satellite operators to bid against earth station owners, this proposal failed to provide for the solicitation of bids from ‘competing licensees’ as required by statute,” said a filing Friday in docket 18-122.

Ligado Chief Legal Officer Valerie Green and others representing the company explained its requests for tweaks to a draft NPRM reallocating the 1675-1680 MHz band for 5G, set for a vote by commissioners Thursday, in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. As expected (see 1905020061), Ligado said by offering a national license, the FCC would more closely align those rules to those for the 1670-1675 MHz band, per a filing posted Monday in docket 11-109. The satellite company said, consistent with Pai’s announcement of the NPRM and the administration’s FY 2020 budget (see 1904170049), the NPRM should explore “the concept of assignment with a fee as a possible licensing mechanism” rather than auction.

A group that held meetings at the FCC last week to raise questions on the draft 1675-1680 MHz NPRM (see 1905020061) made its arguments in a filing posted Friday in docket 19-116. Representatives of AccuWeather, the National Weather Association, University of Wisconsin and Microcom Design, among others, reported on meetings with aides to all five commissioners. “This NPRM is proceeding at this time when the issue has not been fully vetted by Federal agencies, commenting via NTIA,” the filing said: “Many of the users of systems that are likely to be impacted by interference or sharing conditions are Federal users, in partnership with academic and private sector partners with which they work each day to enhance weather forecasts for the nation.” The group said meteorological and hydrological experts from state and local governments, the private sector and academic institutions “can provide answers to the many questions” in the draft NPRM. That's “assuming adequate time is allowed for comments and reply comments to accommodate users who are responding to weather conditions and hydrometeorological events occurring this time of year.”