Globalstar continued to urge the FCC to reject Iridium’s petition to reallocate spectrum in the lower Big Low Earth Orbit (LEO) band. Iridium presents no justification for revisiting the FCC’s 2007 decision allocating the lower Big LEO band between Iridium and Globalstar, Globalstar said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-213 (http://bit.ly/1s1KHEg). Globalstar also urged the FCC to grant it authority to provide low-power terrestrial mobile broadband service in its own licensed spectrum. Its filing recounts a series of meetings with staff from the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology, and with staff from the offices of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.

ViaSat acquired GrayLabs to expand high-rate modem and design technologies. The transaction gives ViaSat “new ways to deliver a higher level of performance and increased data throughput for commercial and government customers,” said the acquirer Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1o6sLn4). ViaSat said it expects to enhance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications.

The Satellite Industry Association asked the FCC for an extension of time to file reply comments in the proceeding on commercial operations in the 3550-3650 MHz band. SIA would like the deadline changed from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15, it said in its motion in docket 12-354 (http://bit.ly/1Ah3q3t). Reviewing all the comments and documents filed during the initial comment period, and drafting responsive comments will be time consuming for SIA and other parties, it said. During the reply period, many technical personnel for SIA member companies will not be available due to their attendance at ITU joint task force group meetings for the 2015 World Radiocommunications Conference, it said.

SES received a contract under the U.S. Air Force Hosted Payload Solutions program. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract “will provide a streamlined method for the U.S. government to host government payloads on SES spacecraft,” SES said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lwgYOM). The contract has a five-year ordering period, and all missions and studies under the contract are expected to be completed no later than Jan. 31, 2029, it said. The Air Force planned to award IDIQ contracts to 14 vendors (CD April 29/13 p6).

The Society of Satellite Professionals International launched a website Tuesday to catalog the contributions of satellite technology to human welfare, the economy, peace and security. The site, www.BetterSatelliteWorld.com, is part of the Making the Case for Satellite campaign, “which seeks to raise awareness of satellite as one of the world’s essential communications platforms,” SSPI said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lrOeqp). The site features stories of satellite use in the world, and SSPI welcomes story submissions, it said. Submissions can be emailed to makingthecase@sspi.org, it said.

DirecTV and Dish Network continued to urge the FCC not to amend its schedule of regulatory fees to treat direct broadcast satellite operators like cable operators. The FCC lacks legal authority to engage in such a permitted amendment under the Communications Act, “and cannot justify such action under the Administrative Procedure Act,” the satellite TV companies said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-92 (http://bit.ly/1nbcDoc). DBS operators have never generated, “and do not generate now, anything approaching the regulatory costs that cable operators do,” they said. Adopting such a proposal “would raise any other number of logistical and implementation concerns, none of which have been sufficiently considered,” they said.

Globalstar again said Iridium presents no justification for revisiting the FCC 2007 decision allocating the lower big low earth orbit (LEO) band between Iridium and Globalstar. Iridium seeks the very frequencies that Globalstar’s customers rely on every day to request life-saving rescues around the world, Globalstar said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 13-213 (http://bit.ly/1rnyQ5B). The FCC should reject Iridium’s petition, it said. It referred to Iridium’s latest filing that urged the commission to adopt its petition in light of Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power broadband service, which would “eliminate nearly any obligation for Globalstar to provide Big LEO satellite services and would seem to contemplate nationwide exclusion zones for Globalstar’s two-way satellite services,” (http://bit.ly/1tfbbSO). Globalstar’s filing pertained to a meeting with staff from the offices of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly.

Harbinger Capital Partners, the largest investor of LightSquared, filed a complaint Friday against the U.S. government for allegedly breaching its contractual commitment to permit Harbinger to build out, deploy and operate a mobile broadband network using LightSquared’s spectrum. The U.S. “has taken Harbinger’s property without just compensation,” Harbinger said in its complaint filed in with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The FCC proposed to revoke LightSquared’s conditional waiver to provide a terrestrial network in 2012. Although the FCC conditionally approved LightSquared’s technical waiver application for terrestrial-only handsets in 2011, it “halted deployment of Harbinger’s nationwide mobile broadband network by requiring LightSquared for the first time to address and resolve the GPS industry’s belatedly raised receiver overload concern,” it said. The FCC fully understood that the GPS receiver overload problem was “an inexorable consequence of the very thing the United States had made a contractual condition in its negotiations with Harbinger -- a national, mobile broadband network operating using LightSquared’s spectrum,” Harbinger said. As a result of the government’s actions, LightSquared wasn’t able to renew financing, lost contracting partners and eventually was rendered unable to continue operating, it said. Harbinger requests its full and reasonable damages and just compensation “in an amount to be proven at trial,” it said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed Spectrum Five’s request for review of an FCC order giving EchoStar temporary authority to move a satellite from its location at 76.8 degrees W.L. orbital location to the 96.2 degrees W.L. orbital location desired by Bermuda for a satellite it was requesting International Telecommunication Union permission to operate. The Netherlands, which had contracted with Spectrum Five for satellite operations, was seeking ITU permission to operate a satellite nearby at 95.15 degrees W.L., meaning it would have been interfering with the Bermuda satellite’s operations if it had secured ITU permission first. The court ruled Friday that Spectrum Five didn’t have standing to seek a review of the order because it “failed to demonstrate a significant likelihood that a decision of this Court would redress its alleged injury” (http://1.usa.gov/1zupW8z).

Globecomm said its new global mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services -- targeted at business-to-business-focused (B2B) MVNOs, enterprises and government organizations -- will “provide these companies with new sources of revenue while reducing their costs and shortening time to market.” Globecomm said it’s handling all of the new MVNO services through its existing infrastructure and its MBOX platform. “B2B MVNO services are a natural extension of Globecomm’s business,” said Andy Silberstein, Globecomm senior vice president, in a Thursday news release (http://bit.ly/1zsduGk).