To make up the ground segment of its Lemur satellite system, Spire Global is asking the FCC International Bureau for authority to operate 13 earth stations scattered around the U.S. In its IB filing Wednesday, Spire said Lemur will provide maritime and meteorological monitoring and earth imaging services, and needs authority to use the 402-403 MHz band for uplinks and the 2020-2025 MHz band for downlinks. The company said its use of 402-403 will be of limited duration and is unlikely to cause interference because of the infrequent transmissions. It said its use of 2020-2025 MHz also is unlikely to cause interference since the spectrum "is currently fallow." Spire said it asked for additional frequency authorization for its Phase II Lemur satellites, but those won't be deployed in the immediate future so it isn't seeking authority to use those frequencies with the proposed earth stations.

Tying its new offering to the NCAA basketball tournament, Dish Network launched Sports Bar Mode, or MultiView, for Hopper 3 customers Wednesday night in a software update. The multichannel view divides a 4K or HDTV screen into quadrants, each capable of displaying a different program. The feature works by decoding four different feeds and displaying them simultaneously, said Dish. Availability of Sports Bar Mode was timed to arrive in time for the first round of NCAA basketball games, during which several matchups are played at the same time, Dish said. The software update also included performance enhancements and general bug fixes. Sports Bar Mode works with all live, linear channels in Dish’s programming lineup, and on demand content and recorded TV shows and movies, Dish said. Consumers tap into the feature through the Options button and then Picture in Picture. Users toggle through the four programs to select the one that will have the audio feed, it said. Other multichannel configurations are possible with Hopper 3, including a split-screen feature that places two channels side-by-side and a setting that overlays a second channel in the TV screen's upper right-hand corner, Dish said.

The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) is backing the placement of Ligado Networks' application on FCC public notice. In a filing Thursday in docket 12-340, the PISC said the former LightSquared's service rules included public interest obligations that now aren't suitable given Ligado's proposed service rules or would need major modification. Any PN should seek comment on how to modify the public interest obligations to promote competition, access to spectrum for businesses owned by women and minorities, and deployment of wireless services in rural areas, it said. PISC is made up of the Center for Rural Strategies, Common Cause, New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. Ligado and numerous others also have backed a PN seeking comment on the company's license modification applications (see 1603070051, 1602120052 and 1602100057).

Saying it "sincerely regrets that it did not articulate its position ... with sufficient clarity" before and during a March 4 hearing on a DirecTV pending summary judgment motion, the FTC filed a motion for leave to file supplementary material Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The material is a four-page brief on how the FTC sees the evidentiary burden standard applicable to that motion. The agency sued DirecTV in 2015, alleging it wasn't properly communicating the early cancellation fees subscribers face if they sign up and then quit the service before two years (see 1503110042). In its brief, the commission said the Rule 56 summary judgment standard doesn't require presenting new evidence. The FTC said DirecTV has argued the website screenshots showing disclosures hidden behind hyperlinks and tabs that the commission presented as evidence have shifted the burden to the FTC to show other evidence consumers didn't see or comprehend the disclosures, but those screenshots point to a violation of the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act, which requires online sellers to disclose material terms conspicuously and clearly.

The FCC's spectrum rules for communications with commercial space launch vehicles "need only minor improvement and not wholesale replacement," Boeing officials told FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-115. Boeing said it expects to do RF testing this summer and fall -- under an FCC experimental license -- of its reusable Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 vehicle, with the first launch expected in 2017. It said federal-only launch spectrum at 429-430 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz and 5650-5925 MHz needs to remain under federal control because of public safety risks, and co-primary allocation for nonfederal launches "could result in unnecessary confusion over the control of the launch spectrum." On the timing concerns nonfederal users of federal-only launch spectrum face when trying to schedule launch operations, Boeing said issuing experimental authority for longer approval periods could cut that delay risk. It also recommended issuing experimental authority for multiple launches at a single location within a two- to five-year span as a means of tackling the problem of nonfederal users being able to complete only a single launch under six-month special temporary authority grants. And Boeing said it saw no reasons for the FCC to adopt formal rules for nonfederal launch operations since the commercial launch industry already is covered by FAA licensing and regulatory requirements and those have "functioned successfully to ensure the reliability and safety of this growing industry." Those at the meeting included OET Chief Engineer Julius Knapp and Audrey Allison, Boeing senior director-frequency management services.

Screen crawls warning Dish Network subscribers about possible dropping of NBC programming violate contracts the network has with Dish, the DBS company said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Rockford, Illinois. NBCUniversal Media "decided to bombard Dish subscribers with prohibited messages" on their screens, on NBCU's Facebook page and on a new NBCU website, Dish said, saying because of the difficulty getting a lost subscriber back, it "has incurred and will continue to incur substantial damages as a result." Dish said its retransmission consent and affiliation agreements signed with NBCU March 13, 2013, include prohibited message language, and NBCU began its campaign on Monday. In the suit, Dish asks for unspecified financial damages. NBCU didn't comment.

Since EchoStar 10 seemingly has another 11 years of operational life, Dish Network is seeking to extend the license term for the satellite until April 10, 2027. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, Dish said it seeks a license modification because the current license expires April 10, but the satellite's fuel consumption and estimated end of life would justify the extension.

DirecTV wants to hand its Sky-Mexico 1 satellite license over to its Novavision Group affiliate, with the aim of allowing Novavision to keep providing HD programming to Mexican and Central American subscribers, Novavision said in FCC International Bureau filing Friday. Once reassigned, Sky-Mexico 1 will still operate in accordance with ITU filings at its 78.8 degrees west location, said Novavision, which is owned by DirecTV and Grupo Televisa. According to the filing, Novavision has used the satellite since its May launch to provide direct-to-home TV service to Mexican and Central American consumers.

ViaSat expects an explosion in data capacity with launches of ViaSat-2 next year and then launches in 2019 and 2020 of ViaSat-3 Americas and ViaSat-3, CEO Mark Dankberg told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the company said in an ex parte filing Friday in docket 14-177. ViaSat 3 will deliver 100-plus Mbps of residential service, enabling 4K video streaming and fiber competition, plus up to 1 Gbps speeds for mobile and corporate enterprise applications, ViaSat said. The company also said it believes in shared use of the 28 GHz band with terrestrial operators. ViaSat said it recommended the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction be technology neutral by allowing competition by all technologies and service providers.

Any public notice about Globalstar's proposed terrestrial low-power service should make clear the FCC has the final say on an acceptable TLPS/Wi-Fi coexistence testing process, Public Knowledge said in an ex parte filing Monday in docket 13-213. It recapped a meeting between PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler adviser Edward Smith, at which PK said Feld had suggestions for any agency approval of TLPS, including making clear that if accommodation fails, the agency "must have clear processes by which it will adjudicate spectrum interference claims." The FCC also should say TLPS intrudes into spectrum allocated for public use and thus carries a bigger burden to benefit and protect public spectrum, PK said. The group said the FCC should move quickly on issuing a public notice on unlicensed use of the 5.9 GHz band, and include three key questions in it: (1) Should the FCC seek comment on whether to impose noncommercial conditions on the portion of the 5.9 GHz band used for life and safety operations or the entire 75 megahertz of it? (2) What value is there of allocating spectrum to dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems when automakers already have anticollision systems using unlicensed Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) systems and what level of DSRC inference protection would be harmful given that UWB systems will be the primary anticollision protection provider for autos in the foreseeable future? (3) What privacy and cybersecurity rules might be needed for DSRC?