Iridium Drops Petition Seeking Big LEO Reallocation

Iridium is dropping its 2013 petition seeking reallocation of the 1616-1618.725 band from CDMA and CDMA/TDMA shared use to TDMA mobile satellite service (see 1302130047). In an RM-11697 filing posted Wednesday, Iridium cited the inactivity in the FCC docket -- there were no filings this year and the last one not by Iridium was in 2015 -- and unspecified "changes in the regulatory environment." Iridium said it sought the spectrum in response to Globalstar's plans to use its lower big low earth orbit spectrum for terrestrial operations. Globalstar opposed Iridium's petition (see 1407210045).