SpaceX received FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OK for experimental license to operate an R&D vertical takeoff/vertical landing vehicle in Texas. SpaceX said in its application it will maintain a bidirectional RF link on the vehicle and run two batches of flight tests: flights below 500 meters in altitude lasting about 100 seconds, and flights as high as 5 kilometers and lasting as long as six minutes. The company said it also was seeking an experimental permit from the FAA for the test flights.

Making any satellite operator wishing to update its system do an analysis of any particular configuration for every other satellite system is an "extraordinary" regulatory burden the FCC doesn't and shouldn't impose, SpaceX said in an International Bureau filing last week. It responded to opposition to its request to move part of its planned 4,409-satellite constellation from a 1,150-kilometer orbit to 550 kilometers (see 1811090002). It said to assuage SES/O3b concerns about interference, it analyzed possible effects on those satellite systems, finding the proposed modification won't increase interference. It said OneWeb concerns also are inaccurate and it faces no increased interference risks.

While 5G specifications for satellite communications seem "unattainable" today, "5G is great news for the satellite industry" because it points to easier integration and opening of new markets like IoT and multicast streaming, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra blogged Monday. He said the "highly touted" 10 Gbps per connection target shouldn't discourage satcom: LTE had been aiming for 1 Gbps for a decade after the standard was finalized and the majority of LTE networks still don't meet that performance level, "so do not expect networks to meet 5G promises overnight." He said top satellite performance reaches terrestrial specifications.

Dish Network designated entities' appeal of the FCC order (see 1807130003) reaffirming Wireless Bureau procedures for the DEs to comply with the court's 2017 remand should remain in abeyance since commission proceedings on the court's remand are pending, the agency said in a docket 18-1209 status report (in Pacer) Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Comments are due April 8, replies May 8 on the FCC Further NPRM adopted in September that would designate additional spectrum bands for earth stations in motion communicating with geostationary satellites (see 1809260029), said Friday's Federal Register.

The FCC's claim to jurisdiction over orbital debris "rests on a thin reed [since] debris generation is not radio communication," space lawyer Laura Montgomery blogged Thursday. She said the launch industry might also want to make clear in the orbital debris NPRM approved at November's meeting (see 1811150028) that the FAA has exclusive jurisdiction over, and the FCC can't put requirements on, launch and re-entry. She said just asking whether requirements could overlap into the domain of other regulatory agencies opens the door to the FCC visiting the issue of regulating debris from launch vehicles. She said it's not clear what congressional authority it has to require licensees indemnify the federal government under damage claims under the Outer Space Treaty and the Space Liability Convention. She also said it's equally unclear how the FCC can discuss requiring disclosure of debris mitigation plans for deployment mechanisms if those devices don't carry a transmitter requiring an FCC license. In a docket 18-313 posting Wednesday, debris mitigation advocacy group Satellite Design for Recovery said orbital debris discussions and rules changes are needed regardless of whether the FCC is the proper agency to drive those. It said design requirements should accommodate future active removal, such as grappling features, and the 25-year lifespan should be replaced with a risk-based rule based on the satellite's orbital altitude, collision cross-section and operating lifetime.

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) proposal for clearing part of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band claims rival plans are insufficiently voluntary, even as it would clear out its competitors and customers without incentivizing their participation, said C-band small satellite users in a docket 18-122 posting Thursday. ABS, Embratel and Hispasat -- which have opposed the CBA proposal (see 1810160046) -- said requiring a satellite operator to have had U.S. C-band revenues in 2017 to receive proceeds from a band clearing runs contrary to FCC precedent. They said their proposal would fix these problems by offering earth station owners incentives to clear the band and by allocating proceeds to all licensees and the Treasury. CBA didn't comment.

The FCC's ancillary terrestrial component rules -- aimed at letting mobile satellite service operators provide better coverage in areas tough to serve by satellite -- are a failure, with no ATC deployment made under them and no viable ATC-like service having succeeded in the marketplace, Iridium said in a docket 18-377 posting Wednesday. Iridium -- which has advocated eliminating the ATC rules -- said Ligado's own ATC plans aren't ancillary because its service would be fully terrestrial but use satellite spectrum. It said Ligado claims Iridium is trying to suppress competition are specious since Ligado is a niche satellite service provider with only a marginal presence to begin with. And it said Ligado's ATC proposal is unrelated to 5G because it involves spectrum that hasn't been recognized for 5G by international standards bodies. Ligado didn't comment Thursday.

Jury instructions and plaintiffs' standing are at the heart of a Dish Network appeal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) verdict by the U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, according to rival briefs posted Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The TCPA verdict needs to be overturned because the class is "fatally overbroad," with the appellee having defined it to include many improper plaintiffs such as thousands of nonsubscribers who never received phone calls, Dish said in a docket 18-1518 brief (in Pacer). The lower court also wrongly instructed the jury that two calls to the same phone number establish the statutory requirement of two calls to the same person, it said. Appellees Thomas Krakauer and others said (in Pacer) precedent shows the TCPA zone of interests includes call recipients even if they weren't the subscriber and intended recipient. The appellees also said Dish doesn't cite any case contrary to the prevailing view that TCPA violations inflict concrete injuries on recipients. Dish is appealing at the 7th Circuit a similar telemarketing verdict in litigation brought by the FTC and states (see 1706270061).

ViaSat and Facebook will partner on an Internet connectivity initiative in rural areas internationally, revolving around the satellite operator's community Wi-Fi hot spot service, they said Wednesday. They said Facebook is investing in the rollout of thousands of such hot spots in ViaSat's current and planned coverage footprint, with the initial focus being expansion of ViaSat's community Wi-Fi service in Mexico and a subsequent global expansion possible.