Inmarsat and Honeywell finalized the critical design review of aircraft avionics for Inmarsat’s Ka-band network, they said. The companies expect product certifications to be achieved this year, “followed by product introduction which is expected during the first half of 2015,” Inmarsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1fNVXyU). Inmarsat reviewed the final functional specifications of hardware designs and the results of engineering units tests, it said. Inmarsat partnered with Honeywell to provide in-flight broadband services for the network, Global XPress. Using GX Aviation, “passengers will be able to do everything from real-time social media updates and emails to live-streaming TV, all while in flight,” it said.

Orbital Sciences backed enabling commercial entities to better support government operations through carefully targeted changes. The FCC should make modest changes in launch of commercial vehicles from federal ranges and in on-orbit operations of re-supply vehicles for the International Space Station, Orbital said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-115 (http://bit.ly/Nag5Bo). The commission should permit operators like Orbital to obtain full FCC licenses instead of just special temporary authority, it said. The commission can do so “by granting the relevant spectrum co-primary federal/non-federal status,” Orbital said. The filing recounted a meeting this week with members of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Satellite Division.

The Satellite Industry Association urged the FCC to consider a “cost-based rebalancing of regulatory fees as between earth station and space station licensees as part of its ongoing review of the regulatory fee structure,” SIA said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-140, 12-201 and 08-65 (http://bit.ly/1btKXC6). The apportionment of the regulatory fee burden between these categories is based on outdated information “that does not reflect significant streamlining of the space station licensing process,” it said. “As a result, the share of fees currently borne by space station licensees is too high, and the share borne by earth station licensees is too low.” This rebalancing will ensure that fees are assessed more accurately and fairly, it said.

ViewSat agreed to use Intelsat capacity to facilitate and enhance ViewSat’s distribution service to the North American direct-to-home market. ViewSat is using capacity on Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 located at 97 degrees west, Intelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1dqUARV). The satellite offers a Ku-band DTH platform that serves customers in the U.S. and Caribbean, it said.

The SES-8 satellite was successfully co-positioned with the NSS-6 satellite at 95 degrees east. The SES satellites are fully operational and serving the Asia-Pacific region, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1dYFnHG). Through the colocation with NSS-6, SES-8 “not only provides incremental high performance capacity, notably for DTH [direct-to-home] services, but also greater reliability and additional security for SES’s customers at that orbital position,” SES said.

Dish Network unveiled lightweight antennas that deliver HD TV quality for outdoor viewing. The Pathway X1 and Pathway X2 provide access to every HD English channel available to residential subscribers, “as well as SiriusXM music channels within the America’s Top 120 package or higher,” Dish said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1bJ2W7s). “Consumers can choose to receive Dish’s programming on a monthly basis with no minimum term commitment."

Japan Airlines will add the Gogo Vision service to its entire domestic fleet. This is Gogo’s wireless in-flight entertainment service “that allows passengers to rent movies and television shows and stream them to their own Wi-Fi enabled laptops or tablets,” Gogo said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1baVKRv). It will be available to passengers beginning this summer, Gogo said. Gogo also signed a contract with the airline to begin providing Internet service on its fleet of 77 aircraft this summer (CD Oct 29 p18).

Radiosonde operations can be relocated to accommodate spectrum sharing between a commercial LTE network and other National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operations in the 1675-1680 MHz band, said LightSquared attorney John Janka of Latham Watkins in an FCC International Bureau filing (http://bit.ly/1dR8wEI). The findings are from a report conducted by Alion. The report is a result of the special temporary authority granted to LightSquared to use 1670-1680 MHz and 400.15-406 MHz bands for mobile broadband services (CD April 30 p7). Alion provides details of analyses that were conducted in order to assess the viability of relocating National Weather Service radiosonde operations from the 1675 MHz-1683 MHz band to the 400.15 MHz-406 MHz band. The feasibility of such a relocation has been confirmed, the report said. “The analysis has also shown that incumbent systems in adjacent bands will not be impacted by radiosonde operations.” The dynamic analysis showed that co-channel operation of radiosondes with incumbent systems within the 400.15-406 MHz band was, at some sites, more complex, the report said. “As a result, co-channel operation should be avoided.” The report cautioned that the 401-402 MHz segment was deemed unusable for radiosonde operations due to the proliferation of data collection platform within the frequency band.

SES and Eutelsat concluded a series of agreements to settle their dispute over operations at the 28.5 degrees east orbital position. “The first agreement ends the arbitral procedure” between the companies that was initiated in October 2012 under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, the companies said in a press release (http://bit.ly/MlNWpW). The dispute concerned use of 500 MHz of spectrum at 28.5 degrees east, it said. SES was granted the right to use German Ku-band orbital frequencies effective Oct. 4 (CD Sept 17 p15). Under another agreement, Eutelsat contracted long-term satellite capacity on the SES satellite fleet at that orbital position, the companies said. The third agreement allows both parties “an optimized use of their respective spectrum at a number of orbital positions over Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” they said.

Orange Business Services renewed its contract with SES for capacity on NSS-12. The capacity will enable Orange to continue to provide communications services to businesses across the Russian Federation, SES said in a news release (http://bit.ly/Laogf1). “The increase in satellite capacity will allow Orange Business Services to provide point-to-point as well as corporate network connectivity covering significant parts of Siberia,” it said.