With not much growth projected at satellite-connected oil and gas production sites by 2027, service providers and satellite operators instead should look to invest in capacity and infrastructure allowing maximum bits per site, Northern Sky Research analyst Brad Grady blogged Tuesday. He said demand will increase for latency-sensitive digital applications at such sites, plus numerous applications where data pipe size will be of greater importance.
Satellite startup Swarm, subject of an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation of a previous unauthorized satellite launch (see 1805030034), is asking for agency approval to downlink orbital data from those satellites. In an Office of Engineering and Technology application earlier this month, Swarm said it wants a 180-day special temporary authority for downlinking the data, which then would be made available to other satellite operators and to federal agencies to ensure interested parties have current orbital parameters for four SpaceBee satellites. It said the four are in orbit at roughly 500 kilometers altitude. The company didn't comment Wednesday; the FCC said the investigation is ongoing. Swarm also has a pending experimental license application for launch of more cubesats (see 1806110004).
The FCC's NPRM on opening up the C-band to terrestrial use approved last week (see 1807120037) shows the agency isn't looking to protect and serve existing users serving public interests but is interested in appeasing wireless and big data financial interests and generating government revenue, SkyAngel Vice President-Engineering Sherrod Munday blogged Friday on LinkedIn. He criticized Intelsat's role in a plan to clear part of the C-band of satcom operations and said any satcom company willingly giving up spectrum "obviously must have done so out of a desperate and final play to survive ... yet that's not the perspective or playbook shared by any terrestrial broadcasters with common sense and a heartfelt mission to serve the public." The FCC, by acting months before the C-band earth station registration window has closed, is the agency "showing disregard for the information it said it wanted," Munday said. He urged broadcaster and other satcom user involvement in the NPRM. Intelsat didn't comment Monday.
Satellite operators don't primarily rely on real-time data for coordination but instead use models showing system noise temperature changes, and a real-time approach to a coordination trigger as proposed by Telesat Canada/OneWeb would make spectrum sharing tougher, satellite startup Karousel said. In an FCC docket 16-408 posting Wednesday, it said the non-geostationary orbit spectrum sharing rule isn't band splitting, as OneWeb painted it, but the equitable sharing terms are a motivator to make sure parties coordinate in good faith. Conversely, the first-in-line approach of the ITU incentivizes spectrum warehousing and speculation and discourages good-faith coordination, Karousel said. OneWeb petitioned the FCC to revisit the band-splitting portion of NGSO rules adopted last year (see 1801180060). OneWeb and Telesat outside counsel didn't comment.
EchoStar hopes to get four additional years of life out of EchoStar 9. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, it requested a license term extension to Aug. 31, 2022, pointing to the satellite's estimated fuel consumption and end of life. The current license term for EchoStar 9 -- which launched in August 2003 and operates at 121 degrees west -- expires Aug. 18.
Hispasat will invest in LeoSat in a deal that they said will complement Hispasat's geostationary fleet with LeoSat's planned low earth orbit (LEO) constellation and give the Spanish satellite operator a route to new data market verticals. Pointing to a similar 2017 investment in LeoSat by Sky Perfect, LeoSat and Hispasat said Tuesday the LEO operator will work with both for their commercial and regulatory expertise and on such efforts as vendor selections for customer premise equipment and ground operations and further optimization of the satellite platform. LeoSat said launch of its constellation is expected to begin next year.
Dish announced integration with Google Assistant for voice control when paired with a Google Home speaker, Android phone or iPhone. Customers can ask the Assistant to set recordings, adjust volume and launch apps including Game Finder, Netflix and Pandora, it said, and use voice commands to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre. Search results are displayed for Dish programming and Netflix TV shows and movies, it said.
CompTIA's Space Enterprise Council and a major Brazil business group signed a pact for them to cooperate on areas including space advocacy, information sharing and trade missions. The "landmark" memorandum of understanding between the U.S. tech group and Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo was announced Tuesday.
Dish Network isn't carrying Univision, including on its Sling over-the-top video service, due to a programming blackout involving carriage fees. Univision has been keeping the FCC informed about the blackout, and hasn't sought its intervention, a spokesman for that company told us. The Media Bureau declined to comment, and Dish didn't comment. The showdown, which began affecting Dish's customers Saturday, continued Monday, both sides said. It was an "effort to drastically raise rates," Dish said of the dispute involving Galavisión, Univision and UniMás programming: "Despite ratings for these channels decreasing by approximately 30 percent over the past five years among DISH customers, Univision is demanding rate increases of roughly 75 percent." Dish said it, DishLatino and Sling are giving customers "in eligible areas" free antennas to get such broadcast programming. Dish rejected Univision's offer to extend the contract during renewal talks to avoid losing access, the broadcaster said. The MVPD wants to pay "only a fraction of what it pays our English-language peers," said Univision Executive Vice President-Government and Corporate Affairs Jessica Herrera-Flanigan. Each side said the other has a history of such carriage cutoffs.
Gogo plans to unveil a "new integrated business plan" July 12, it said Friday. It said since April, it has been working on a plan aimed at better revenue and improved costs.