Satellite life-extension missions might be the largest potential application for in-orbit servicing, opening the door to more complex missions with higher returns on investment, Northern Sky Research analyst Shagun Sachdeva blogged Tuesday. Salvage opportunities might be relatively few and far between, but it's a service that also could command a premium, he said: Salvaging parts from defunct satellites could one day become a viable option.

Intelsat wants FCC International Bureau OK to permanently relocate its Intelsat 904 satellite to 29.5 degrees west and to extend its license term through December 2024. In a bureau posting Monday, it said the satellite -- licensed now to operate at 45.1 degrees east -- is in the midst of a six-month drift to 29.5 degrees west under special temporary authority. Intelsat 901 operates at 29.5 degrees west and will redeploy this year to 27.5 degrees west, it said. It said the current license term for 904 expiring Dec. 31 is "well before" the expected end of its service life.

That the FCC at its May 9 meeting will look at auctioning 5 MHz of spectrum at 1675-1680 MHz for shared use (see 1904170049) doesn't mean GPS interests have no reason for concern about Ligado's plans for shared commercial use of that spectrum, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Monday. Chairman Ajit Pai didn't specifically say he was going to let Ligado proceed with its plans. Attention still needs to be paid to what the next FCC steps are and how sharing arrangements with federal weather satellites might work, plus possible effects on adjacent users, said RNTF. It's critical of Ligado plans (see 1803160012).

The idea of giving co-equal interference protection status to earth stations in motion (ESIM) communications with non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) and geostationary orbit fixed satellite systems in the 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands is well within the bounds of the ESIM rulemaking, EchoStar said in an docket 18-315 posting Monday. It said that co-equal proposal is in line with the FCC's Ka-band plan and spectrum allocation set up in the 2017 NGSO rules update order (see 1709260035). The company said multitudes of new NGSO ESIM devices will unquestionably lead to increased interference risks.

With failure of Intelsat's 29e satellite (see 1904180061), the company is asking FCC permission to use Intelsat 903 to pick up some traffic. In an International Bureau filing Thursday, the company asked for special temporary authority to provide service using 903's 3625-3700 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands to restore 29e customers. It said it will file a license modification application to use 903 long term for restoring that lost service.

The effect satellite-based providers like Amazon, OneWeb and SpaceX will have on the U.S. broadband marketplace will depend on those services' speeds and pricing, CCG President Doug Dawson blogged Friday. Pockets of rural America are starting to get "decent speeds" due to wireless ISPs, and low-orbit broadband connections are years away, he said.

SpaceX faces some opposition to its request to relocate more than 1,500 authorized satellites to a lower orbit (see 1904030012), and it's now seeing objection to a requested special temporary authority (see 1904080021) that would let the first batch of those satellites -- set for May launch -- be launched for testing purposes under the same terms as that pending modification. OneWeb in an FCC International Bureau submission Thursday said the STA is "a transparent attempt" to do an end run around the pending authorization proceeding. It said the May deadline is self-inflicted and doesn't meet the bar for warranting an STA when SpaceX "prudently and responsibly" could have opted to delay launching. OneWeb CEO Adrian Steckel also discussed the STA when meeting last week with Commissioner Brendan Carr.

Antenna technology and capabilities will be the big enabler of connected vehicle applications, said Intelsat Senior Counsel Cynthia Grady at an FCBA event Thursday. Changes in antennas' form factors -- their compactness and design -- will in turn have a big impact on the ubiquity of satellite in the connected vehicle space, she said. Driverless vehicles will rely on terrestrial data networks for their connectivity, but satellite can play a role in such things as vehicular software updates, speakers said. "You're never going to drive a car with satellite" due to latency issues, said Grady. "It's not the right choice." Grady said software updates via terrestrial networks would be cost prohibitive, plus terrestrial networks don't have satellites' universal connectivity. But satellite could play a part in passenger connectivity for uses like buses and trains, particularly in conjunction with cellular service, said lawyer Robert Koppel of Lukas LaFuria, who represents flat-panel company Kymeta. All automotive original equipment manufacturers are moving to over-the-air software updates, said Brian Daugherty, Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association chief technology officer. Citing the FCC's unified earth station/satellite licensing proposal, Koppel said as more non-geostationary orbit satellites come online, that gets flat-panel antennas into the market faster, which in turn will expand the customer base and applications for those NGSOs. But antenna pricing is such that they won't be ubiquitous on individual cars anytime soon, Koppel said. Grady said increased satellite activity in the connected vehicle marketplace will exacerbate tension between satellite and terrestrial interests over spectrum access. The satellite industry is "already tight on spectrum," she said, noting increased industry interest in higher-frequency bands like Ka even though it's more vulnerable than C band to issues like rain scatter. She said as mobile terminals shrink in size they'll need higher power, which strains the 2-degree geostationary orbit separation rules for satellites.

The Intelsat 29e satellite has failed and is a "total loss," the company said Thursday. Intelsat said it convened a failure review board with manufacturer Boeing to try to ascertain the cause. It said problems started with a propellant leak earlier this month that resulted in a service disruption to customers. It said migration of traffic to other satellites and service restoration "are well underway."

Pointing to New York's New NY Broadband Program, providing state funding to support broadband access, HughesNet said Wednesday it's rolling out new service plans for state residents.