Small satellites pose their own regulatory issues and should be handled separately from the FCC's current look at changes to the Part 25 rules for earth and space station licensing, the Satellite Industry Association said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-267. SIA said it is considering filing a petition for rulemaking specifically regarding small satellites. A parade of satellite industry representatives met with International Bureau staff to lay out industry proposals for Part 25 changes, the filing said. Present at the meeting were executives from or representatives of Boeing, DirecTV, EchoStar, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Iridium, Kymeta, OneWeb, O3b and SES, said SIA, which said the satellite industry "urged the Commission to move expeditiously" on an order. Among the industry-proposed changes are the recommendation the FCC should go further in its proposal that it file with the ITU an operator proposal for a geostationary satellite (GSO) for non-planned fixed satellite service (FSS) bands before a full space station application needs to be filed, SIA said. The FCC should allow ITU filings before license applications for non-geostationary (NGSO) operations in non-planned FSS bands as well as for GSO and NGSO operations in bands outside of FSS, SIA said. Current ITU filing practices put domestic applicants at a competitive disadvantage as they must disclose detailed space station plans before the FCC will file with the ITU, meaning operators have a disincentive to obtain U.S. licensing of new satellite systems, SIA said. The SIA group also told IB staff some technical rules "could be simplified, and in some cases relaxed" to help get products to market faster, though the changes would not materially increase the risk of interference.

Intelsat sought FCC International Bureau permission to provide MexSat-G2 launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) services. The satellite is scheduled to go up Oct. 2, and LEOP is expected to last 10 days, Intelsat said in its IB application filed Monday. The company said it plans to use its Castle Rock, Colorado, Ku-band earth station for LEOP operations.

Dish Network added an online appointment tool, My Tech, giving customers information about Dish technicians on the way to their homes, including the person's name, picture and current location. Dish said Tuesday that My Tech is available on mydish.com to all Dish customers with a scheduled service appointment, and includes a real-time countdown for the technician's arrival.

Universal Space Network is asking for International Bureau approval to provide launch and early orbit (LEOP) support services alongside the European Space Agency and Swedish Space Corp. when the Sentinels-3A satellite is launched. The satellite is scheduled to go up Nov. 2 from the CNES space center in Kourou, French Guiana, USN said in its IB application filed Thursday, and LEOP support is expected to take up to seven days. USN plans to use its Alaska ground station and conduct LEOP services in the S-band.

The network operating system for Globalstar's planned terrestrial low-power service helps assure there will be no interference with unlicensed spectrum, iPass CEO Gary Griffiths said in a letter posted Wednesday in FCC docket 13-213. The letter repeated support the Wi-Fi hot spot company had expressed earlier this year for Globalstar's plans to set up a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band. In a filing earlier this month, Globalstar said its TLPS won't interfere with Wi-Fi, but any TLPS network operating system would include means for operators of licensed and unlicensed services to notify it of any possible interference (see 1509110018). That pledge "sets a path that can give the FCC and all other users of the band confidence that TLPS will be an innovative, pro-consumer compliment to existing use of this band," iPass said.

Harris CapRock seeks FCC International Bureau approval to add 1,000 2.4m multiband earth station onboard vessel (ESV) terminals to its existing license for operating in the C and Ku bands. The ST5000-2.4 terminal is also designed to operate in Ka-band fixed-satellite service frequencies, Harris CapRock said in its application filed Tuesday, file number SES-MOD-INTR2015-01657. The company last month filed an IB application to cover demonstration and testing of the ST5000-2.4 on cruise ships (see 1508060008).

Arianespace will launch the BSAT-4a satellite for Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System (B-SAT) in late 2017, it said in a Monday news release. The launch on an Ariane 5 rocket will be from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, under a contract between satellite manufacturer SSL and B-SAT. Arianespace has launched all of B-SAT's satellites. BSAT-4a is to provide digital broadcast services to Japan, including 4K and 8K Ultra HD TV services. Japanese broadcasters have earmarked the debut of 8K Ultra HD TV services in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Wait until after November's World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 before taking action such as an NPRM on high-frequency spectrum, EchoStar said in a filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 14-177. Some topics may be recommended for more study and there may be spectrum allocation decisions at WRC-15, so waiting until afterward to tackle high-frequency spectrum issues would let everyone, including the FCC, "take into consideration those WRC-15 determinations," the company said, citing a litany of unanswered questions about high-frequency spectrum issues it said need to be hashed out before an NPRM, including whether frequencies higher than 95 GHz should be included because antenna arrays in higher frequencies, such as 120-240 GHz, are more cost-effective than those at the 30-60 GHz range. EchoStar said other questions need answers, such as what kind of interoperability potential exists across different 5G bands as 5G could end up including bands above 95 GHz, and what kind of frequency ranges are best suited for end-to-end latency of less than a millisecond in 5G. Lacking technical data on incumbent operations, technical sharing rules such as what Intel has proposed "would essentially be meaningless," EchoStar said. Intel has pushed for the FCC to move quickly on a high-frequency spectrum NPRM, arguing it would encourage ITU discussions on the topic at WRC 2019 (see 1508110053). Even sharing criteria would first need numerous questions answered, such as the typical transmit power levels and antenna patterns for Ka-band earth stations, and how would 5G affect satellite earth stations, EchoStar said. There's also a dearth of data on potential cumulative 5G interference due to incumbent systems, and a lack of propagation models for 5G systems above 24 GHz, it said, leaving questions about what models the FCC would use, as well as how the agency would even propose technical and deployment parameters for 5G given that 3GPP and other standards groups are developing the technical transmit and receive parameters and will not be done until perhaps by 2020, the company said.

Boeing jets could come off the line with ViaSat's in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity built in, under an agreement between the companies, ViaSat said Tuesday in a news release. It said the agreement allows ViaSat's Ka-band airborne satellite terminal to be evaluated as a factory option for Boeing aircraft before delivery.

Intelsat will provide broadband connectivity and cellular backhaul services to Mozambique through an agreement with Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicações de Moçambique, the company said Tuesday. The multiyear agreement has Intelsat providing some of its C-band capacity on Intelsat 902 for dual band connectivity for its own transport network and for use with local cellular providers.