The FCC should start processing satellite applications that include use of the 50.4-51.4 GHz band, conditioned on the outcome of the proposed licensing for fixed satellite service earth stations operating in the band, EchoStar said in a docket 14-177 posting Monday. It said akin to the 24 GHz, 28 GHz and 47 GHz bands, a limited number of individually licensed FSS earth stations can share the 50 GHz band without big effect on terrestrial operations.

Article III of the Constitution, on federal court jurisdiction, precludes U.S. district courts from certifying class actions that include uninjured absent class members, said defense bar trade group DRI in a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief Wednesday urging vacating a Telephone Consumer Protection Act verdict against Dish Network (see here, docket 18-1518, in Pacer). DRI said the 4th Circuit at minimum should say class-action judgments can't require defendants to provide relief to uninjured members. It said federal appellate courts are split over the interplay between Article III standing requirements and unnamed class members, and that the 4th Circuit hasn't taken a position. Dish in its appeal is seeking a decertification of the class or for the $60 million judgment to be reversed or vacated (see 1810050002). Appellee counsel didn't comment Thursday.

A 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel won't rehear Digital Satellite Connections' appeal of a lower court summary judgment in a trademark and breach of contract fight between DSC and Dish Network, said a docket 17-1110 order (in Pacer) Tuesday. The 10th Circuit in August upheld a lower court's summary judgment award to Dish Network on that company's breach-of-contract counterclaim. DSC sued, and Dish countersued, over use of the name "Dishnet" (see 1801080004).

Boeing invested in Accion Systems, it said Wednesday, to help the satellite electric propulsion startup expand manufacturing.

Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service operating parameters are the type of interference that global navigation satellite system receivers "can be immune to by design," GNSS receiver maker Septentrio said in an FCC docket 11-109 posting Tuesday. It said its receivers are made to handle terrestrial adjacent band emission noise, and the GNSS industry is increasingly focused on developing receivers to handle such interference. In a statement, Ligado said GPS-enabled smartphones show LTE and GPS can coexist and the filing as well as Septentrio's own products demonstrate "that the public clearly benefits when they do coexist because our country is armed with better, more resilient GPS that protects us from threats such as spoofing and jamming."

Dish Network can't be blamed for the actions of "a rogue contractor," but the lower court was more interested in punishing Dish than in correctly defining the class of class-action plaintiffs who received telemarketing calls, the company said in a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opening brief (in Pacer, docket 18-1518) Thursday. Dish also said plaintiffs Thomas Krakauer and others should sue the party that made the calls, Dish contractor Satellite Systems Network, for the alleged Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations. Dish is seeking a decertification of the class and reversal or vacation of the $60 million judgment. Krakauer counsel didn't comment Friday. Dish and the plaintiffs repeatedly clashed over class membership issues before the U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina (see 1801040009).

Satellite startup Swarm was granted an experimental license for launch of more cubesats, according to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approval Monday. The FCC said Thursday its Enforcement Bureau investigation into an unauthorized previous launch of Swarm cubesats (see 1807180020) remains ongoing and the license was issued without prejudice to any enforcement action. The agency in August approved Swarm receiving orbital tracking data from those cubesats (see 1808300014).

Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat formed the C-Band Alliance in a move aimed at accelerating access to midband spectrum for 5G. A July FCC NPRM sought comment on the band (see 1807120037). “The formation of the CBA is a significant achievement and demonstrates the industry alignment necessary to make this mid-band spectrum available quickly, thus supporting the U.S. objective of winning the race to introduce terrestrial 5G services,” the companies said. “The proposal establishes a commercial and technical framework that would enable terrestrial mobile operators to quickly access spectrum in a portion of the 3,700 to 4,200 MHz frequency band in the U.S., speeding the deployment of next-generation 5G services.” The coalition includes Head-Advocacy and Government Relations Preston Padden, a key player in the TV incentive auction, and CEO Bill Tolpegin, who was co-founder and CEO of OTA Broadcasting. The announcement “appears to be a great step to quickly and orderly reallocate the spectrum to commercial wireless use,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.

Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations could cause harmful interference, said users of data from satellites for positioning, weather information and communications, in meetings last week with aides to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, recounted a filing posted Friday in docket 12-340. Consumer benefits of services provided by “the GPS, SATCOM, aviation and real-time environmental satellite data communities are too important to jeopardize,” said Iridium, the National Emergency Number Association, Airlines for America and others. Benefits of Ligado’s “constantly evolving proposals” are “speculative,” they said. Deny the license modification application unless the company can show it addressed the interference problem, the filing said.

President Donald Trump's pledge to create a separate Space Force military branch (see 1806180028) needlessly politicized and muddied a pressing national security issue, House Armed Services Committee member Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said at an Aspen Institute talk Thursday. He said a separate armed forces branch isn't needed, just a more capable U.S. Air Force. Cooper said Congress and the Air Force have been aware for close to 20 years about the threat of a militarized space, but have done nothing. He said GPS has made much of the world satellite-dependent, but with China and Russia developing rival global navigation satellite systems, that dependence is “a vulnerability that could render us deaf, dumb and blind in seconds.” House Armed Services Committee member Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said Russia and China see space as an area where they can compete head-to-head with the U.S. militarily, and both have been devoting bigger parts of their defense budgets to space capabilities than the U.S. has. He said the Air Force bureaucracy is "beyond repair," necessitating a carve-out of space capabilities and personnel into a Space Corps that would focus on space issues. He said the Air Force regularly takes money from space programs for aeronautic programs. Rogers said Armed Services' vision is a corps within the Air Force, akin to the Marines under the Navy, with its own budget and own channels for promotion. He said it might not be necessary to have an entire sixth military branch that also incorporates space operations from other military branches. Rogers said a Space Corps by 2020 is possible if its structure is kept narrow like what House Armed Services is proposing.