The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by former LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja of terms of the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, denying his petition Monday (see here) and as expected (see 1610120025). The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May also denied his petition for rehearing (see 1605120001). Ahuja protested shares in reorganized LightSquared that went to hedge fund Harbinger Capital, a majority shareholder in pre-bankruptcy LightSquared, in exchange for the company's receiving Harbinger's rights in an array of lawsuits. Bijan Amini of Storch Amini, counsel for Ahuja, said his client was disappointed. LightSquared now is Ligado.

Dish Network and Travelers Property Casualty settled their legal fight over whether the insurer is responsible for defense costs as Dish fights robocall claims by the FTC and California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio (see 0903260144). In an order (in Pacer) Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Schanzle-Haskins gave them 60 days to file a stipulation of dismissal and proposed dismissal order. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn of Denver ruled (in Pacer) in March in favor of Ace American Insurance in a similar suit the insurer brought against Dish in 2013.

NTIA's push for some exemptions for government earth stations operating in the C-, Ka- and Ku-bands wouldn't achieve what it wants and doesn't incorporate FCC Part 25 rules into NITA federal radio frequency management rules, EchoStar representatives told the commission. An ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-115 said the company urged the FCC to reject the NTIA exemptions and instead make federal earth station operations subject to the same licensing, coordination, interference protection and technical requirements as commercial earth stations. They also should be subject to public notice and public comment, EchoStar said. It said commercial licensees shouldn't have to operate under NTIA coordination requirements, and federal earth station operators instead should have to monitor FCC PNs and comment on applications that might affect their operations the way commercial licensees must. The commission also should have sole jurisdiction over enforcement actions for federal earth station use of nonfederal spectrum, EchoStar said. Co-primary use of fixed satellite service spectrum by government earth station operators without such regulatory parity "would result in preferential treatment of one class of applicants over another with no public interest basis," said the satellite company. The filing recapped meetings that included Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner and FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Deputy Chief Ronald Repasi. NTIA in a letter in the docket to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last month said the communications agency should add primary federal allocations or remove restrictions in the 3700-4200 MHz, 5925-6425 MHz, 11.7-12.2 GHz, 13.75-14.5 GHz, 18.3-19.3 GHz, 19.7-20.2 GHz, 28.35-29.1 GHz and 29.25-30 GHz bands

The burgeoning small satellite launch industry sees signs of big commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, but the federal regulatory structure hasn't caught up, said Richard DalBello, Virgin Galactic vice president-business development and government affairs, at a Washington Space Business Roundtable talk. The regulatory hurdles include uncertainty on oversight of payloads and "pretty archaic" rules for debris mitigation, he said Friday. If even a fraction of the planned small satellite and cubesat constellations end up getting launched, the smallsat launcher business "is going to be a great business to be in," DalBello said. Thirty-seven different entities are developing smallsat launchers, said Tauri Group Managing Partner Carissa Christensen. Given both commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, DalBello said, "the market is big enough for multiple people to have great businesses." Vector Space Systems expects to be at operational capacity by the end of 2018, Chief Technology Officer John Garvey said. He said the company is trying to build its business around doing a minimum of 12 launches a year to be sustainable. Rocket Lab expects to begin commercial launches by Q2, said Brad Schneider, executive vice president-U.S. operations. "We will survive on well less" than 12 a year, he said. Virgin Galactic expects to begin launcher service by early 2018, and hopes to ramp up to a rate of a couple of launches a month, DalBello said. He said Virgin Galactic's current launch site is in Mojave, California, and it's scouting for a near-equatorial launch site. He said its Long Beach launcher assembly plant is being built for capacity of 24 launches a year.

The Obama administration is pledging $50 million toward small satellite technology development. A White House news release Thursday said NASA will put $30 million toward "public-private partnership opportunities" aimed at earth observations being provided by commercial smallsats, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency just signed a $20 million data purchase agreement with smallsat startup Planet to buy earth observation imagery. The spending was announced as part of the daylong White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, with a focus on various technologies.

Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, which with BC Partners owns Intelsat (see 0708140111), is ending its representation on the satellite company's board. In a news release Wednesday, Intelsat said Silver Lake Managing Partner Egon Durban and Managing Director Simon Patterson will resign from the board effective Dec. 31. Intelsat said that after that the board will have seven members -- two from BC Partners, the CEO and executive chairman, and three independent directors. Silver Lake affiliates own about 12 percent of Intelsat, it said. In a statement, Silver Lake said it "remain[s] committed to our investment in Intelsat and while we are leaving the Board, we will continue to support Intelsat’s management team as it advances its business.”

Pointing to the FCC's update last year of its satellite rules, Boeing withdrew its 2014 petition asking the agency to revise its evidentiary rules that required satellite licensees to show compliance with the critical design review milestone. In a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-267, Boeing said the Part 25 rules revamp (see 1512170036) made its petition "effectively moot."

Aviation, hydrological and meteorological critics of Ligado's LTE proposal have been pressing their case on the FCC's 8th floor, according to ex parte filings (see here and here) posted Wednesday in docket RM-11681. The filings recapped meetings involving Jessica Almond, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Erin McGrath, an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, with representatives from Penn State University's Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, the American Meteorological Society, the National Hydrologic Warning Council, Aviation Spectrum Resources, and weather and climate policy consultancy Narayan Strategy. According to the twin filings, Penn State and others said sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band poses notable risks to the U.S. extreme event communication, forecast and warning capabilities, and that more research is needed. They also criticized Ligado's cloud-based content delivery network proposal as unacceptable since it lacks guarantees all current users of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration information will continue to have uninterrupted access to the real-time data regardless of access to the internet or power. They also warned of dozens of private and public users of NOAA data who require direct reception in the 1675-1680 MHz and 1675-1690 MHz bands unprotected since the Ligado proposal would only protect federal users from interference. And in a separate filing Tuesday in the docket, Garmin said Ligado's exclusion zone proposal isn't adequate for certified aviation devices and suggested the FCC look to the Federal Aviation Administration to set up the best course for interference protection. Garmin said an analysis by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics indicated the size of exclusion zones would necessarily vary based on operational scenarios. The company also said even if the right-size exclusion zones could be defined, there's no agreement on determining the power limits that would apply to the thousands of Ligado base stations. Ligado didn't comment Wednesday.

Intelsat's Intelsat 36 satellite is now operational, providing broadcasting and direct-to-home services for DTH provider Africa's MultiChoice, the company said in a news release Thursday. It was launched in August and is colocated with Intelsat 20 at 68.5 degrees east, the company said.

Though the Galaxy 25 satellite's license term expires Dec. 31, it has another possible nine years of life, Intelsat said in an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday, asking for extension of the license term through April 30, 2025. The satellite began operations in 1997, and the most recent estimate of its expected end of service life was April 2019 without inclined orbit operation, to as far out as April 2025 with inclined orbit operation, the company said.