Dish Network and plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action complaint have come to an agreement on carving out some phone numbers and calls to those numbers from the class certification in the case. In a stipulation (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina, the company and plaintiffs Thomas Krakauer and the others said the carve-outs are being done "to narrow issues for trial and facilitate the effective presentation of classwide proof." A total of 1,494 phone numbers, accounting for 4,231 calls, should be removed, Dish and the plaintiffs said as they asked the court for an order modifying the class definition. The categories of numbers to be removed include listing names that appear to be businesses, different listing names associated with the same number and numbers in which call records indicate the first call to the number contains comments suggesting the recipient requested a callback or agreed to be called back.
Globalstar still hopes to reach a compromise that will bring FCC approval for its proposed terrestrial low-power service, CEO James Monroe said during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. The company didn't take questions on TLPS. In an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-213, Globalstar also recapped a meeting involving Vice President-Finance, Business Operations and Strategy Tim Taylor, consultant and ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. At that meeting, Globalstar said it talked about allowing opportunistic access to Wi-Fi channel 14, where Globalstar hasn't deployed TLPS.
The federal government has used V-band satellite systems for decades, and Boeing has spent years readying its commercial V-band satellite system plans, and the FCC's spectrum frontiers proceeding is about allocating spectrum for more down-the-road potential future 5G development, Boeing said in a response posted Wednesday in RM-11773. The company defended its ask for the FCC to specify the 50.4-51.4 GHz band as usable for fixed satellite service uplinks and make an FSS allocation in the 51.4-52.4 GHz band. V-band is ready for commercial use but needs 5 GHz of paired spectrum, and the 50 GHz band spectrum would complement downlink operations in the 37.5-40 GHz bands, the company said; by putting individually licensed earth stations only in rural areas, its FSS operations won't have significant effects on upper microwave flexible use services, demonstrating FSS and UMFUS sharing is workable in the 50 GHz band. Boeing said its request is complementary to spectrum frontiers, since it identifies spectrum that would be shared between terrestrial and satellite services. Some have speculated the FCC will fold the satellite manufacturer's petition into the spectrum frontiers Further NPRM (see 1610180046). The International Bureau delayed consideration for the company's request to also operate in the 42-42.5 GHz and 51.4-52.4 GHz frequency bands (see 1611010060).
Fixed satellite service (FSS) operations need to retain primary status in the 40 GHz band, and sharing with upper microwave flexible use service (UMFUS) in other spectrum frontiers bands requires some conditions, EchoStar said in an FCC ex parte filing Thursday in docket 14-177. UMFUS access to the 47.2-50.2 GHz band should include rules that prioritize those services in urban care areas and require co-primary sharing for FSS earth stations and UMFUS base stations elsewhere, the company said. It said the 50.4-51.4 GHz band, where FSS is co-primary, should follow the same sharing regime but with a higher power flux density (PFD) limit because of the propagation characteristics of the band. The satellite maker urged the FCC to implement rules it adopted in 2003 allowing satellites to operate in the 39 GHz band at higher PFD levels when having to overcome atmospheric conditions like rain fade; those rules have been in limbo pending technical studies, the company said. EchoStar said letting UMFUS use the 24.75-25.25 GHz band should come with rules protecting broadcasting satellite service feeder links and gateway earth stations. The filing recapped a meeting between executives including Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner and International Bureau staffers including Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque.
Arguing Iridium's claims of unacceptable out-of-band-emission (OOBE) levels from its planned LTE deployment (see 1609020029) overstate the dangers to that company's terminals, Ligado said it is open to tighter OOBE restrictions if it means speedy granting of its license modification applications. An ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 11-109 recapped a meeting between company representatives and FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless and International bureau staffers. Ligado said it argued real-world effects of its ancillary terrestrial component plans "would be comfortably in line with the existing spectrum environment." Since Iridium's licensed downlink spectrum is allocated on a secondary, non-interference basis, those downlinks aren't entitled to interference protection from adjacent spectrum users operating under primary allocations, like Ligado, the company said. Ligado said its LTE operating parameters, including an OOBE mask, "have been fixed for years," and its pending license modification applications would actually reduce the level of its user terminal emissions below those parameters. Ligado said its proposed operating parameters fall in line "with the broader operating environment in the spectrum adjacent to Iridium's downlinks," including more than five million of mobile satellite service mobile earth terminals that are allowed to uplink at power levels five to 10,000 times higher than Ligado's LTE terminals. Ligado also said the odds it would agree to more OOBE level reductions rise "if certain flawed assumptions underlying Iridium's ... technical showing were adjusted to reflect more accurate, suitable and typical values." The filing also included a synopsis of numerous technical critiques of Iridium's assertions. Iridium didn't comment Thursday.
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).