Iridium's Certus L-band satellite broadband service will be commercially available in Q2 2017, the satellite company said in a news release Tuesday. The company said Certus eventually is aimed at supporting a variety of services targeting particularly maritime, land mobile, aviation and government applications, and will be based on Iridium's Next low earth orbit constellation scheduled to begin launching this summer. Once fully deployed, Certus will offer speeds of 1.4 Mbps, Iridium said.
Dish Network hopes to roll out a new 3.7-meter-diameter antenna earth station to operate with 17/24 GHz broadcast satellite service (BSS) systems by October. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, Dish said it needed its blanket earth station license modified to add up to 25,000 3.7-meter receive-only earth stations to the 4.5-meter and 6.35-meter antennas already authorized and to extend the required date of construction completion and commencement of operation by six months, from June 30 to Dec. 30. Dish said earth station design and manufacturing is still catching up with the recent availability of 17/24 GHz BSS service, thus necessitating the additional time while it and its vendors find the components needed for receive-only BSS. It also said the smaller antenna type "will facilitate expeditious deployment of 17 GHz receive-only earth stations" that could then support video and data services on a multi-use terrestrial network, potentially leading to more mobile broadband service options.
Zetta Jet and ViaSat signed a deal for ViaSat to provide in-flight connectivity to the airline's Bombardier Global business aircraft, ViaSat said in a news release Monday. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a bid by a direct broadcast satellite marketing firm for a stay of enforcement of the $610,560 damages it was ordered to pay DirecTV while its appeal of those damages is decided (see 1605040020). In the order (in Pacer) Friday, the 4th Circuit three-judge panel said only it denied Exclaim Marketing's motion. But in its memorandum (in Pacer) in opposition last month, DirecTV argued the U.S. District Court in New Bern, North Carolina, previously denied Exclaim's request for relief and that should stand since the motion wasn't based on any new facts or changed circumstances, that there was no basis for a stay since Exclaim hadn't posted a full bond and that minus that bond Exclaim had the burden of proposing an alternative means of securing the judgment, which it failed to do. Exclaim sued DirecTV in 2015, alleging deliberate interference in Exclaim's business relationships with independent satellite dealers, with the court ultimately overturning the jury's verdict that was in Exclaim's favor and awarding DirecTV its trademark infringement counterclaim. Exclaim didn't comment Monday.
As Deere plans to introduce new mobile earth terminals for its StarFire precision farming system, the GPS company is asking the FCC International Bureau approval to receive downlinks from various Inmarsat satellites. In a pair of IB filings Thursday (see here and here), Deere requested special temporary and permanent authority to operate as many as 700,000 SF6000 and SF5050 terminals in the L band with Inmarsat 3F2, 3F3, 3F4, 4F1 and 4F3.
American Airlines hired ViaSat to provide in-fight connectivity to the Boeing 737 Max fleet, ViaSat said in a news release Friday. It said the jets will use ViaSat's existing Ka-band capacity from ViaSat-1 and ViaSat-2, with ViaSat-3 -- expected to launch in 2019 -- adding to that.
The FCC International Bureau will demonstrate its new Schedule S software, which incorporates changes to Part 25 rules, 10 a.m.-noon June 14 at FCC HQ in Conference Room 6-B516, it said in a public notice Wednesday. There also will be a hands-on demo for participants to try the software 1-3 p.m., the PN said. It said the demo will cover creation and management of Schedule S forms, which are filed when applying for or amending satellite licenses or applications, as well as the review of available instructions and the submission of forms. To register, call 202-418-2222 or email ibfsinfo@fcc.gov by June 9.
The number of functional satellites in orbit as of the end of 2015, at 1,381, was up 39 percent from 2011, with the average number of satellites launched per year in 2011-2015 up 36 percent over the previous five-year span, the Satellite Industry Association said Thursday in a report. For the year, 202 satellites were launched, roughly the same as 2014, with more than half of those being cubesats, SIA said. Overall satellite industry revenue in 2015 rose 3 percent from 2014, to $208.3 billion, with the U.S. claiming roughly 43 percent of that, SIA said. The biggest piece was in satellite services -- $127.4 billion, up 4 percent, driven largely by satellite-TV services growth, which is seeing particular subscriber growth in emerging markets, SIA said. That was followed by ground equipment -- $58.9 billion, up 1 percent -- and satellite manufacturing -- $16.6 billion, up 4 percent -- it said. The one down area was launches, which at $5.4 billion was down 9 percent, a reversal of the 9 percent growth in 2014, SIA said. The overall 3 percent growth in 2015 was the sixth straight year of single-digit industry growth, after double-digit growth for a number of years in the previous decade, SIA said. It said 33 launch orders were placed in 2015, up from 22 in 2014, and at least 17 low earth orbit-capacity launch vehicles are under development worldwide.
Orbital ATK could be a step closer to resuming cargo logistics missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in July, after a full-power "hot fire" test Tuesday of the upgraded first stage propulsion system of its Antares medium-class rocket, the company said in a news release. The rocket employs RD-181 main engines, and the company said early results from the testing indicate the upgraded propulsion system worked with the integrated first stage as planned. Orbital ATK said Tuesday it has done five cargo delivery missions to ISS and is under contract with NASA for 11 cargo missions through 2018.
ViaSat said it backs the FCC Connect America Fund Phase II auction framework "inviting new service providers" to bid on rural broadband subsidies (see 1605250046 and 1605260034). ViaSat lauded the FCC for listening to various parties "and taking an important first step toward expanding beyond legacy technologies and creating a technology neutral competition to provide the best available broadband access universally," said CEO Mark Dankberg, in a release emailed Wednesday and dated last Friday. "ViaSat stands ready to participate in the proceeding and auction by offering future-ready satellite internet solutions that will help fill the broadband gap in the United States with a high-quality, high-performance broadband and voice service to the target households."