Spaceflight seeks FCC International Bureau approval for communications with its Sherpa spacecraft sometime in the first four months of 2016. In its IB application posted Friday, Spaceflight said it intends to launch Sherpa on a Falcon 9 between Jan. 15 and April 15 into an elliptical orbit of between 450 and 720 kilometers, and Sherpa would then deploy satellites from each of its five ports. The company is seeking special temporary authority for communications between Sherpa and three earth stations during Sherpa's 12-hour operational span so as to monitor the launch and to download status information. The downlink communications would be at 401.5 MHz, while the uplinks would be at 450.2 MHz, Spaceflight said. Sherpa -- a nonpropulsive spacecraft with no solar panels, attitude control, propulsion or pressure vessels -- is designed to deploy up to three microsatellites and several cubesats and nanosatellites, and then ultimately de-orbits back into the atmosphere roughly 20 years after launch, Spaceflight said.

A surety -- increasing by fixed amounts every year the penal sum of a bond -- would meet FCC goals of an "escalating" bond requirement for satellite operators so that a potential payment increases over time, Robert Duke of the Surety & Fidelity Association of America told International Bureau staff in a meeting detailed in an FCC filing posted Friday in docket 12-267. The agency last year initiated a rulemaking to modify Part 25 rules for earth station and satellite licenses, including revising bond requirements to try to deter spectrum warehousing (see 1411060049).

Intelsat's C- and Ku-band Intelsat 34 launched successfully Thursday from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, the company said in a news release. SSL-built Intelsat 34 will join Intelsat 11 and 21 in providing video distribution services in Latin America, replacing Intelsat 805 and Galaxy 11, plus broadband services for the aeronautical and maritime markets in the North Atlantic, Intelsat said. Two more Intelsat launches are scheduled for the first quarter of 2016, it said.

SES Americom hopes to run its AMC-6 C- and Ku-band satellite 12 more years, through June 30, 2027, filing an application Thursday with the FCC International Bureau requesting a license modification. AMC-6 began operation in 2000 and is licensed to operate through Nov. 20 of this year, SES said. There's sufficient fuel to run AMC-6 through the proposed extended term and to deorbit it, SES said.

Intelsat's efforts to change or eliminate the two-degree spacing rule is both self-serving and unpersuasive, said SES Americom and EchoStar in a filing posted Friday in docket 12-267 in response to Intelsat arguments that ITU coordination would be preferable to the FCC spacing rules (see 1508100064). Numerous other satellite operators, including DirecTV, Iridium and ViaSat, also backed keeping the spacing rule, SES and EchoStar said. Meanwhile, Intelsat's argument that the growth of satellite operators internationally but few satellites licensed by the FCC to operate in previously unoccupied frequencies as indicating the ITU system works better "ignores the most obvious reason for this numerical imbalance -- robust development of the U.S. arc has left relatively few unused locations available for new satellite entry," EchoStar and SES said. That focus on the number of new satellites ignores the two-degree rule's role in ensuring spectrum and orbital resources access while coordination negotiations are underway. "It provides entrants with certainty that they can commence operations at reasonable power levels, rather than being at the mercy of an adjacent operator with ITU priority," the two said. The two-degree spacing rule also gives existing and new operators the right to operate under reasonable default levels and both have mutual incentives to come to agreements on higher levels, EchoStar and SES said. Intelsat's argument that the ITU system would better help U.S. licensees meet demand for small-antenna services has no basis, EchoStar and SES said. "SES, EchoStar and others including Intelsat itself have been able to successfully deploy mobility services and other small-antenna offerings under the existing two-degree spacing framework," the two said. Intelsat didn't comment Friday.

Dish Network subscribers in Wisconsin may receive a bill credit as part of a settlement reached after an investigation into consumer complaints by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said a news release from DATCP. The settlement includes $225,000 in civil forfeitures and assessments and a $4.25 bill credit to thousands of eligible customers, the release said. The settlement requires Dish to make changes to its communications with Wisconsin customers whenever Dish increases prices on satellite television offerings that are subject to an early termination fee, it said. "While we respectfully disagree with the allegations in the complaint filed by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, we appreciate their constructive feedback regarding our communications with our customers," said a Dish spokesman. "We are pleased to amicably resolve this matter, so that we can continue to focus on providing outstanding customer service and the best value in pay-TV.”

The FCC denial of Dish Network’s $3.3 billion in AWS-3 auction bidding discounts “is clearly an unfavorable development for the company as the resulting significant cash outlays could further weaken the balance sheet and liquidity” and force “negative credit rating actions,” Moody’s said Wednesday in a research note. Much depends on how Dish finances the $3.3 billion obligation and manages its “credit metrics,” Moody’s said. Paying back the $3.3 billion in discounts would leave Dish with “less to work with,” possibly imperiling the company’s mergers and acquisitions activities, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said on an Aug. 5 earnings call (see 1508050042).

Dish Network finished integration of its Hopper DVR with control modules put out by AMX, Crestron, Pro Control and RTI, the company said in a news release. They follow Control4, which released an IP module for Hopper to dealers in 2014. Dish said Tuesday the integration speeds up installation and lets dealers add IP control to the system. Dish opened its third-party application programming interface in 2013, allowing Hopper to be tied into home environmental and security control systems, with a single interface operating all of them.

LightSquared's compatibility testing is duplicative of federal Transportation Department efforts, and its methodology is questionable, the GPS Innovation Alliance said in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 12-340. The filing is in response to testing LightSquared began in July of possible interference between its broadband uplink and downlink signals and neighboring spectrum GPS signals (see 1507160045). While LightSquared has solicited feedback from the GPS industry on the testing, being done by Roberson and Associates, GPS Innovation Alliance said it "will focus its technical efforts" on the DOT assessment of adjacent band compatibility issues, the draft test plan of which is expected to be released soon. The LightSquared testing "would reinvent any number of test methods and acceptable criteria" that have been sent out by the ITU and the International Civil Aviation Authority among others, and an issue of a sole service provider "is not an appropriate place for domestic modification of established international standards," GPSIA said. In a separate filing in the docket posted Monday, the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association said the FCC should go through "careful deliberation regarding the options and their consequences" before allowing any sharing of the 1675-1695 MHz band by meteorological and hydrological users and broadband. LightSquared's plans would have it using a downlink at 1670-1675 MHz, while NTIA is looking at 1675-1695 as the subject of a possible auction in the future, AMS and NWA said. "The choice of which spectrum bands are shared should not endanger the reliability or the effectiveness of public safety meteorological and hydrological data flow" from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites, and thus should not happen "unless it can be confirmed that no loss or interruption of the critical life-saving operations currently using it will occur," the two said. In a filing to be posted in docket 12-340, LightSquared said Tuesday that since the initial DOT testing plan was released in December 2012, "so far not a single device has yet been tested, nor has any end date of testing been identified." It also said GPSIA's questioning of the standards Roberson is following in its testing "is wholly incorrect" and that the organization "provides no specific criticisms of any of the standards proposed by Roberson that would allow substantiation of such a claim." The testing "needs to proceed in a timely way in order to provide relevant input ... and will do so notwithstanding GPSIA’s failure to contribute," LightSquared said. In a separate filing to be posted in the docket, it said it "agrees that any sharing of this spectrum must ensure that NOAA and the National Weather Service can carry out the critical functions described by AMS and NWA." Citing studies done by Alion Science & Technology filed last year, LightSquared said such spectrum sharing "is technically feasible" and that it "has undertaken additional close study of the spectrum, including services received by non-NOAA entities, and plans to file a further study shortly, providing further assurance that the critical operations described by AMS and NWA can be protected."

Sharp and Kymeta signed an agreement for Sharp to use its LCD production technology to make Kymeta flat-panel satellite antennas, Kymeta said Tuesday. The new antenna platform -- developed over three years -- will obviate the use of mechanical steering equipment and can be electronically pointed and steered, Kymeta said.