Three men are facing federal criminal charges for allegedly pirating Dish Network signals. DOJ on Friday said Arnaldo (“Naldo," “naldo.dish") Vazquez, 41, Awildo (“Wildo,” “joselo626” and “wildo20”) Jimenez, 36, and Higinio ("Ingi") Lamboy, 46, all of Puerto Rico, were indicted on conspiracy to circumvent protective systems, infringe copyrights and traffic in satellite decryption devices; trafficking in technology designed to circumvent technology copyright protection systems; and circumventing a technological measure that protects a copyrighted work. Justice contended Vazquez and Jimenez own and operate a company that provided the pirated services to subscribers, and Lamboy was salesman and repairman for the hardware they provided to their customers. It alleged the defendants sold their customers receivers programmed to bypass Dish anti-piracy measures and connect to a bootleg internet key sharing server to access the copyrighted content.

Chairman Ajit Pai will discuss FCC space policy in a noon Hudson Institute talk Thursday, the group said Friday.

Dish Network and AT&T are pointing fingers at one another over an HBO and Cinemax blackout on Dish and its Sling TV. Dish, along with Public Knowledge, called the blackout evidence of problems with AT&T's buy of Time Warner. The circumstances suggest DOJ's opposition to the deal on the grounds New AT&T would have motivation to withhold content and stronger leverage in negotiations was valid and that it bolsters the argument that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should reverse the lower court decision allowing the deal, PK said Thursday. Dish said AT&T made "untenable demands," including that the satellite company pay for a guaranteed number of subscribers regardless of how many actually want the channel. Dish also sought "binding, baseball-style arbitration to determine the fair market value of HBO and Cinemax" -- and for the premium channels to be restored to Dish during arbitration. AT&T emailed that HBO in 40-plus years never was taken down due to the lack of a deal. Dish "is making it extremely difficult, responding to our good faith attempts with unreasonable terms," the telco said. "Past behavior shows that removing services from their customers is becoming all too common a negotiating tactic for them." The carrier said Dish could have opted to continue to carry HBO under existing terms negotiated before TW's takeover.

FCC ancillary terrestrial component rules netted zero deployments, but waivers and rulemaking requests, Iridium said, urging rescinding in the L- and big low earth orbit bands in a docket 16-131 posting Tuesday responded to seeking comment on rules to be reviewed under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (see 1807310030). It said no approved ATC operations proposed by four mobile satellite service operators resulted in a viable ATC service and the MSS operators never attempted deployments consistent with rules. The Commercial Smallsat Spectrum Management Association sought deletion or modification of a variety of rules, such as ending the requirement a licensee file an original and signed hard copy of an electronically filed Form 312 application and clarifying the requirement for prior OK of orbital changes for non-geostationary orbit satellites approved over a range of orbital altitudes. EchoStar recommended deleting the requirement applications for satellite operations in a band not allocated internationally for those operations be dismissed, and allowing streamlined application for a comprehensive license covering earth station and satellite operations.

Eutelsat's petition seeking clarification of FCC rules regarding notification of nonroutine transmission levels (see 1808300039) incorrectly argues notifications should be valid only when describing current operations at previously authorized power levels, since that would unduly narrow the scope of the rule, SES said in a docket 12-267 posting Tuesday. SES concurs with Eutelsat that notification with inaccurate information should be disregarded.

Clearing additional C-band spectrum for terrestrial 5G services will mean having to put up more satellites, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said in a call with analysts Tuesday. He said the number of additional satellites -- needed to maintain the number of transponders available for customers while also being able to clear up to 200 MHz of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band -- isn't clear yet, nor is the timing of when they will be needed. He said designs are being worked on now for the additional satellites. The C-Band Alliance of Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat said earlier this month that they could clear as much as 180 MHz for terrestrial operations and 20 MHz as a guard band (see 1810220053), up from the 100 MHz for terrestrial operations and 50 MHz for a guard band that previously had been discussed. He said the alliance is now spearheading discussions with parties potentially interested in the spectrum for terrestrial use. Spengler said to clear more than the 200 MHz in the future would require "some technology development" and potentially additional satellites. The Alliance and other parties filed comments this week on the FCC's C-band clearing NPRM (see 1810300043). Intelsat closed Tuesday down 6.6 percent to $25.63 after it reported a net loss of $374.6 million, most due to early debt retirement and income taxes. It said revenue was little changed at $536.9 million.

Ligado will partner with Ericsson and Sequans on developing 5G L-band technology for mobile services in North America, it said Monday. Ligado said it and its partners -- focusing on technical issues for developing 5G technology for the satellite component of its planned satellite and terrestrial mobile 5G network -- soon will do 5G demos.

Globalstar joined the Satellite Industry Association, the group said Monday.

ViaSat contracted with SpaceX for launch of one of its Ka-band ViaSat-3 satellites sometime in 2020-22, it said Thursday.

Hughes Network Systems said FCC distribution of new USF support for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands without an auction must contain "clear and unambiguous" criteria for scoring the network "resiliency, cost, timing and performance" of bids considered by a neutral third party. The satellite provider has concerns about distributing "Stage 2" support without an auction, but backed an "objective, non-auction format for this one-time funding allocation" to "expediently restore and expand resilient broadband communications" to the hurricane-struck islands, it said, posting Tuesday in docket 18-143. It responded to a staff request at a Sept. 12 meeting. The company recommended a "rubric, based on the Commission’s four enumerated priorities -- 40 points for price per location; 20 points for network resiliency; 20 points for network deployment timing; and 20 points for network performance." Puerto Rico Telephone Co. urged increasing the Stage 2 budget for fixed service providers and giving the carrier a right of first refusal, it said in meetings its CEO Enrique Ortiz de Montellano and others had with Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Brendan Carr and aides to all four commissioners. It discussed how to "structure an alternative competitive request for proposal process, if necessary."