SpeedCast International expects to close on its proposed buy of Harris CapRock by the end of Q1, the company said in a news release Tuesday announcing the $425 million deal. SpeedCast said it would give it a bigger footprint in maritime as well as presence in the energy industry. With Harris CapRock, SpeedCast's customer base would include more than 6,200 vessels, hundreds of rigs and platforms and various government customers. SpeedRock said the deal requires antitrust and other regulatory approval.

The deadline for comments and petitions to deny Boeing's application for a V-band non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation is Dec. 1, with responses and oppositions to petitions due Dec. 12 and final replies due Dec. 19, the FCC International Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday. The bureau also set a March 1 deadline for applications and petitions for declaratory ruling on similar NGSO satellite operations in the same frequency bands. The bureau said it was deferring consideration on Boeing's request to operate in the 42-42.5 GHz and 51.4-52.4 GHz frequency bands, since they're not allocated for satellite service and won't include them in the processing round pending action on a waiver request the company submitted in September to let it operate in the 51.4-52.4 GHz band. The PN and processing round were expected (see 1607110043).

OneWeb's petition for U.S market access for its proposed non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation (see 1604290016) is procedurally defective and shouldn't be granted -- and if there is an OK, it should come with conditions, the MVDDS (Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service) 5G Coalition said in a filing Friday in the FCC International Bureau docket. The coalition said OneWeb's petition for mobile satellite services in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band is structurally deficient since the agency allows deployment of only fixed service, broadcast satellite service and fixed satellite service in the band. Since the company hasn't sought a waiver request or accepted the IB Satellite Division invitation to file for a waiver, it should instead petition for rulemaking that would permit mobile NGSO use of the band, the coalition said. The group suggested a pair of conditions if the FCC grants an authorization: that the authorization be subject to any future MVDDS rule changes the FCC adopts and be limited to non-mobile, non-portable uses. OneWeb didn't comment Monday.

One frequency band isn't the same as a marketplace, and having fewer than three licensees in a band doesn't reflect some lack of market competition needing remedy, the FCC said, lifting its "three-license presumption" in its non-geostationary orbit-like (NGSO) satellite processing round procedures in an order on reconsideration to be published Monday in the Federal Register after approval Aug. 16. The three-license presumption requires the agency withhold spectrum for use in a subsequent processing round if two or fewer qualified applicants apply in the initial processing round. In the order, the FCC also clarified the procedures for redistribution of spectrum among other NGSO-like systems after authorization of one has been canceled, saying it will then issue a public notice or order and propose to modify the remaining grants to redistribute the spectrum among remaining system operators that have asked to use the spectrum. The FCC said the returned spectrum "will generally be redistributed equally" among the other operators that requested it. The commission also clarified that it will continue its "three-strikes" rule -- which limits additional satellite applications if a licensee misses three milestones in any three-year period -- and that while it revised its milestone rules last year (see 1512170036), it kept one milestone requirement and any authorizations surrendered prior to fulfilling that milestone will continue to be subject to the "three-strikes" rule. The FCC also said it disagreed with a Hughes petition arguing that the limit on pending applications and licensed-but-unlaunched satellites wasn't needed for orbital locations not covering the U.S. and against the bond requirement for applicants for satellites to operate at non-U.S. orbital locations, with the agency opting to keep them as safeguards against speculation. It also clarified that NGSO-like licensees getting spectrum rights from other NGSO-like licensees are allowed to build a single, integrated NGSO-like system under one milestone schedule and that non-U.S. satellite operators can notify the agency of a change in satellite ownership after the fact. The rules changes will be effective 30 days after publication, said the order.

The FTC is accusing DirecTV of failure to preserve evidence, but the direct broadcast satellite company says the FTC's motion for sanctions under Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should be denied since it did produce or make available the materials in question, said a discovery letter brief (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The FTC said the lost evidence is an interactive website used in consumer surveys, almost all the thousands of consumer comparative tests DirecTV undoubtedly did on its website and past website analytics data. Thus the court should exclude any consumer survey evidence and analyses and any consumer comparative test evidence and DirecTV should be enjoined from relying on some analytics data. According to DirecTV, it "took sufficiently reasonable steps" to preserve and produce the relevant material, and repeatedly offered to make all web analytics data available, and in talking repeatedly with the FTC over the past six years about the scope of what could reasonably be preserved, the agency didn't object and sometimes endorsed the company's actions. "The only explanation for the motion [for sanctions] made in the middle of expert discovery it that it is a strategic ply to exclude expert work fundamental to the case rather than to seek redress for any real discovery wrong," said DirecTV. The agency is suing DirecTV under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act for allegedly not properly communicating early cancellation fee terms to subscribers (see 1503110042).

The Intelsat 33e satellite is expected to be in service in early 2017, CEO Stephen Spengler said during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. It and Intelsat 36 satellites were launched in August (see 1608250021), with 33e being the second of the company's high-throughput seven-satellite Epic constellation. The company has three more launches scheduled in 2017: Intelsat 32e, an Epic satellite, in Q1, Intelsat 35e in Q2 and Intelsat 37e in Q4, it said in a news release. Spengler said the company still is being hit with pricing pressures, though network services seem to be stabilizing. For the quarter, Intelsat had revenue of $542.7 million, down 7 percent due to network services declines, but up from Q2 due to revenue from direct-to-home satellites launched earlier this year, Spengler said.

Other than one consumer filing in favor and a filing by EchoStar, there were no comments on its petition for a waiver that would let it import and sell AirTV, an Internet-enabled set-top box that doesn't include an analog tuner. Deadline for comments in docket 16-329 was Wednesday, with replies due Nov. 2 (see 1610120054).

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan gave additional time for settlement talks in a class-action lawsuit against Dish Network and background check company Sterling Infosystems. In an order (in Pacer) Wednesday, Schofield signed off on a stipulation by the companies and the plaintiffs saying compilation of a settlement class list took longer than expected and Sterling needs authorization to provide the available class member address information to the settlement administrator. The motion deadline for final settlement approval is now Jan. 23, instead of Jan. 9, and the final approval hearing is to be Jan. 31, instead of Jan. 17. The 2012 suit alleges Dish and Sterling violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act in using credit reports to do background checks on prospective employees or subcontractors (see 1512160017).

Iridium's Next constellation likely won't be fully deployed until 2018 and the company isn't sure when the inaugural Next launch by SpaceX will take place, said Iridium CEO Matthew Desch during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. That first launch was slated for September, but SpaceX's ongoing investigation of an explosion during a Sept. 1 preflight ignition test remains underway, Desch said. He said SpaceX indicated it expects to resume launches this year, and one of them "will presumably include ours." Desch said Iridium was comfortable with the progress SpaceX is making in its launch investigation. SpaceX has said that, pending the results of its investigation, it expects to resume launches as early as November. It didn't comment Thursday on which missions would go up when. Despite the launch delays and the loss of two satellites earlier this year (see 1607280006), Iridium's existing constellation "is operating well" and has one in-orbit spare, Desch said, saying there haven't been any signs of battery failure. The loss of two satellites caused some small outages, though the company's customer availability statistics are still high, Desch said. The first two Next constellation launches are targeted to plug those two holes, he said. Iridium also had expected to be able to launch its L-band Certus broadband service commercially in mid-2017 (see 1606070018), but "it could be a little later" given the launch delays, Desch said. Meanwhile, Iridium could start deorbiting its legacy satellite constellation as soon as 2017, he said, with that process expected to be complete by 2019. Iridium revenue for the quarter was $112.8 million, up 6 percent year over year, due mostly to government services, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Fitzpatrick said. He said the company still is seeing declines in traditional telephony usage.

As part of its plan to swap its AMC-6 and AMC-3 satellites (see 1610170014), SES filed a notification Tuesday with the FCC International Bureau that AMC-3's license should be modified to reflect it's moving from 67 degrees west to 72 degrees west. AMC-3 will operate within the technical parameters licensed and coordinated for AMC-6, currently at 72 degrees west, and the move will start no sooner than 30 days after the notification's filing, said the satellite company.