Dish Network knew telemarketer Satellite Systems Network committed Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations for years but didn't care if SSN complied, said U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles of Greensboro, North Carolina, in an order (in Pacer) Monday trebling previously awarded jury damages of $400 per call in the TCPA class-action complaint against Dish. Eagles said Dish arguments it told SSN to scrub its phone lists of Do Not Call Registry numbers "were empty words" since it did nothing when it knew SSN hadn't removed numbers. The court said treble damages -- $1,200 per call for more than 50,000 telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry -- were appropriate "because of the need to deter Dish from future violations." Dish in a statement said it "respectfully disagree[s]" with the opinion and is evaluating legal options. It said it has "long taken its compliance with telemarketing laws seriously, has and will continue to maintain rigorous telemarketing compliance policies and procedures, and has topped multiple independent customer service surveys along the way." Dish and the class-action plaintiffs have been at odds over disbursement of the award (see 1704270008), with a hearing scheduled for June 7 on post-trial procedures.

The U.S. has "an authorization gap" for new outer space activities like in-orbit satellite servicing and asteroid mining, which creates uncertainty for industry, Matthew Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law co-director-Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program, told the Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee Tuesday. Testimony involved the possible regulatory regimes of such new activities, and the possible need to revisit the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. OST Article VI, which makes nations responsible for oversight of space activities that originate from individual countries, "has been an issue," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Numerous questions involved U.S. obligations under Article VI. Satellite lawyer Jim Dunstan of Mobius Legal Group said nothing is to be gained by reopening the treaty regime, which would let unfriendly nations layer on regulatory burdens. Schaefer said fear of the difficulties of OST compliance is unwarranted, since the treaty's obligations are minimally burdensome, but the U.S. not respecting its OST obligations leads to such potential consequences as foreign governments taking away markets and customers from U.S. space businesses. Space lawyer Laura Montgomery of Ground Based Space Matters said the U.S. isn't obligated to regulate all new outer space activities, and it's a misconception Article VI "makes the United States regulate either any particular activity or all activities of U.S. citizens in outer space." She said Congress should prohibit any regulatory agency from denying a U.S. entity from operating based on Article VI considerations. Schaefer said if the U.S. starts legislating in the area of Article VI, some countries will impose the U.S. interpretation for matters of their own national interest, and it would lead to more nations inspired to adopt commercially friendly interpretations. He recommended Congress act to limit the national security barrier to new space activities as much as possible. Many said the U.S. has an effective existing regulatory framework to deal with space debris from such new space industries, but a consolidation and harmonization of the debris mitigation rules required by different agencies would be useful. Since property rights are a good incentive to investment, the U.S.needs to figure out a way to recognize property rights extraterrestrially, and Article II allows that, Montgomery said. Dunstan disagreed, saying OST doesn't allow the U.S. to recognize private property rights. Schaefer said it might be better to proceed on a case-by-case basis for property right disagreements, leaving the discretion in the executive branch rather than doing a rewrite of Article II.

ViaSat launched an in-flight connectivity service plan for large-cabin business jet users, plus a plan to migrate to the new broadband service. In a news release Monday, it said the new service -- based on its ViaSat-2 satellite system -- offers download speeds of up to 4 Mbps, double its current service plan. It said its Global Aero Terminal 5510 is expected to be certified in the second half of the year.

Dish Network's Hopper DVR and Wally receiver are now directly compatible with Amazon Alexa, allowing voice command remote control, Dish said in a news release Monday. Voice commands to Alexa can be used to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search across channels, titles, actors and genres.

Two-thirds of commercial passenger aircraft will have in-flight connectivity by the end of 2026, generating more than $32 billion in satellite communications revenue over the next decade, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Monday. It said quality and quantity of in-flight connectivity likely will take off, with very-small aperture terminal connectivity being installed on a third of commercial passenger aircraft by the end of 2019. NSR said more than half of the addressable commercial passenger aircraft market will have in-flight connectivity through fixed satellite service or high-throughput satellites by 2021. The company said any ban on personal electronic device use on flights could be a stumbling block, as the mid- long-term effect on such a potentially expanding ban is unclear.

Dish Network and the plaintiff in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action complaint against it continue to clash (see 1705110010) over post-trial procedures. Dish Network in a reply (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, said only its proposal has a legally acceptable route for determining which ostensible class members were phone subscribers or receivers of calls, and described the plaintiff's rival proposal as lacking legal support and "reckless" since it would distribute judgment proceeds "without a modicum of reasonable safeguards." Dish said it's "a transparent attempt to artificially inflate the aggregate dollar amount of a judgment and class counsel's related fewer award" without regard to whether the award check beneficiaries should actually receive part of the judgment. Plaintiff Thomas Krakauer and the others in their reply (in Pacer) Friday said Dish "remains in denial" that the court certified the case as a class action and that a jury found Dish violated TCPA more than 51,000 times. The plaintiffs' post-trial procedure proposal would ensure a maximum number of class members are compensated, while Dish's "is designed to do exactly the opposite," Krakauer and the others said. A 10-person jury in January awarded class members $400 per TCPA violation, and plaintiffs are seeking a court enhancement to increase the award to $1,200 per violation (see 1702140010).

SES hopes to relocate AMC-4 from its current orbit at 67 degrees west to a new home at 134.9 degrees west. In an International Bureau filing Thursday, SES also asked for a license term extension for the satellite to Feb. 28, 2022; its current authorization is to expire in December 2018. SES said the relocation would let the company add Ku-band capacity for delivery of in-flight airline connectivity over the Pacific Ocean and augment C-band capacity available in the western region of the geostationary arc. SES said with the launch of SES-10, which is now operating at 66.9 degrees west, AMC-4 is available for relocation.

By early 2018, OneWeb expects the first satellites in its non-geostationary orbit constellation to be launched and operational, Senior Director-Regulatory Affairs Mariah Shuman told FCC International Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-408. It also said it expects to be able to provide broadband service to billions of unconnected people globally by 2025, with it covering much of the U.S. within its first two years of service -- an example being full coverage of Alaska in 2019.

Dish Network said it's the first major pay-TV provider to offer a Spanish-language customer service app. In a news release Thursday, it also said its DishLatino programming package is now offering a Spanish-language user interface for the Hopper DVR, Joey and Wally set-top boxes.

Satellite communications services company MVS USA expects to expand its presence in the government and military sectors with its buy of satellite services company ADCI, MVS said in a news release Thursday. It also said ADCI is the first of a series of acquisitions planned, and ADCI will function as a wholly owned subsidiary.