Adtran joined Hughes Network Systems and ViaSat in lobbying the FCC to back a proposal that eligibility for receiving Connect America Fund Phase II money for broadband not favor any particular platform. The telecom networking company went a step further Wednesday in a filing posted in docket 10-90, spelling out a minimum threshold R-Factor standard of low latency it thinks would be acceptable. R-Factor measures VoIP call quality. Neither Hughes nor ViaSat specified any minimum value. Adtran said that minimum should be an R-value “of at least 80 (as) anything else and some increasing percentage of users express dissatisfaction with the quality of a voice call.” Adtran also raised some red flags with Hughes’ proposal for the methodology for testing the broadband service's usefulness in VoIP. Hughes declined to comment Friday.

The ITU's slow pace of regulatory change was a frustration to panelists at an FCBA event Thursday marking the first launch 50 years ago of a commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit, Intelsat 1. The ITU is responsible for overseeing the assigning of satellite orbits and coordinating global use of radio spectrum. “You may not always agree with" the ITU, said Brian Fontes, National Emergency Number Association CEO. “You may certainly not agree with its time schedule." The body's existence was "a step in the right direction" from not having anything to coordinate frequency use globally, he said. While the speed of technology change and commercial pressures are faster than the ITU moves, “It’s the only system we have,” said David Leive, ex-Intelsat general counsel. The ITU is slow moving, said Internet lawyer Henry Goldberg of Goldberg Godles. He lauded PanAmSat co-founder Rene Anselmo, who helped break the monopoly held by Intelsat: PanAmSat "was a huge success.” The ITU had no immediate comment. “The international consensus style and the U.S. style of encouraging technology don’t really mesh very well” in the ITU, Goldberg said, saying “they work out eventually.”

DirecTV added a 12th satellite to its orbiting constellation, announcing the successful launch of DirecTV-15, covering the continental U.S. and Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. DirecTV-15 and Sky Mexico’s Sky-Mexico-1 were put into orbit from the European Spaceport in French Guiana by Arianespace. The satellites are expected to begin operating in the third quarter, and DirecTV said they will reinforce its existing constellation and bulk up its HD capacity. The company said the Airbus-built DirecTV-15 satellite will operate in all frequency bands. DirecTV has part ownership of Mexican pay-TV company Sky Mexico, and the Orbital ATK-built Sky-Mexico-1 -- that company’s first owned and operated satellite -- will give that company more HD capacity and allow direct-to-home broadcast to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, it said.

When LightSquared emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as New Lightsquared, four firms will own it, though only three will have board rights. In an FCC filing, LightSquared Subsidiary LLC legal counsel spelled out the expected post-bankruptcy organizational structure of the company as it looks for regulatory approval of its plan to exit its three-year bankruptcy. No one firm would have controlling economic interest, but JPMorgan Chase affiliate SIG Holdings would have between 21.25 percent and 40.91 percent, while hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners would own between 26.65 and 44.45 percent, Fortress Investment Group would have between 16.29 and 26.2 percent, and private equity firm Centerbridge would have between 3.2 and 8.1 percent. Harbinger would have no representation on the board, though it would have some negative protections. The seven-person board would include two Fortress appointees; one Centerbridge appointee; one Reorganized LightSquared appointee; the CEO of New LightSquared; and two appointees determined by board members. The filing was in response to FCC staff requests for more information on the ownership of those companies that would have equity in LightSquared. The company no longer directly provides its satellite-based voice and data services to end users via the AMSC-1, MSAT-1 and SkyTerra-1 satellites, working instead through resellers.

NCTA lobbied the FCC against Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) for broadband, while investors in the company lobbied for it, ex parte filings posted Thursday in docket 13-213 show. The company has sought rules adding 22 MHz to U.S. wireless broadband spectrum inventory, which it has said will ease congestion that is hurting Wi-Fi service quality. Detractors from a variety of other industries have been concerned about interference (see 1505060036). NCTA noted that without "appropriate testing," there's opposition to commission action here from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, CEA, Entertainment Software Association, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. Globalstar's TLPS demo showed "its many limitations," NCTA said its lawyers told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Globalstar used only specialized, expensive enterprise access points designed to minimize interference, designed only for indoor use, and operating at a small fraction of the radiated power level it seeks authorization to use." Globalstar wants to use its spectrum "more intensively for additional innovative services," said investors who back FCC-proposed rules from November 2013 to let the company provide TLPS in its mobile satellite service spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz and adjacent, unlicensed spectrum at 2473-2483.5 MHz. "Since the deployment of its second-generation MSS constellation, Globalstar has experienced significant growth in its MSS business and expects demand for its satellite services to accelerate further after the completion of its second generation ground infrastructure in 2016," said the investors. Representatives from Beck Mack, Litespeed Management, Steelhead Partners, Vulcan Capital and York Capital Management had meetings with aides to all FCC members other than Mignon Clyburn, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly himself and Chief Mindel De La Torre and others in the International Bureau.

The FCC approved a waiver for the U.S. table of frequency allocations and the commission's Ka-band plan in connection with O3b's plan to do tests and demonstrations and provide commercial service using earth stations on six non-U.S. registered maritime vessels, said a letter to the company from the International Bureau in docket 15-601. The service will involve up to three 2.2-meter antennas per maritime vessel that will use the 27.6-28.35 GHz and 17.8-18.3 GHz bands to communicate with its non-geostationary orbit fixed-satellite service system licensed by the U.K., the letter said. The FCC doesn't license transmissions on non-U.S. registered maritime vessels, but Ob3 must still comply with the commission's regulations to the extent its signals are transmitted within the U.S. The FCC also granted and denied parts of Inmarsat's petition to clarify or reconsider the conditions imposed on its earth station modification applications, said an order from the Satellite Division in docket 15-602. The order granted a waiver subject to conditions, including that Inmarsat coordinate its use of the conventional C-band telemetry, tracking and control frequencies with adjacent satellite operators and that the company's use of those frequencies be on a non-interference basis. The order declined to delete the requirement that Inmarsat accommodate future space station and earth station networks that are compliant with Section 25.202.

DirecTV launched its Kids App to help parents make the Internet safe for their children, said a company news release Thursday. The app, designed for ages 5-10, offers hundreds of popular children’s shows and kid-friendly movies, available to watch instantly from Cartoon Network, HBO, Nickelodeon, Starz, Sprout and others, based on the customer’s DirecTV programming package.

The World Broadcasting Unions’ International Satellite Operations Group agreed to change its name and mandate, said the WBU in a news release emailed Tuesday. It becomes the International Media Connectivity Group, "more reflective of the many transmission methods broadcasters and content providers are using," said WBU. In "a connected world," broadcasting "is on every platform, both for collection and distribution," said Michael McEwen, WBU secretariat head.

LightSquared wants the FCC to let the L band be used for terrestrial broadband, calling it "vital" spectrum, an ex parte filing said ex-commission Chairman Reed Hundt and ex-Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg told agency Chairman Tom Wheeler and aides. Hundt, representing the satellite company, and Seidenberg, expected to chair the board of the firm exiting bankruptcy, also asked that spectrum at 1675-1680 MHz be made available for terrestrial purposes, said a filing posted Tuesday to docket 12-340. Speaking May 8 with Philip Verveer, Wheeler's senior counselor, and Wheeler wireless aide Renee Gregory, Hundt had made a similar request (see 1505140012), said a previous filing in the docket. Gregory and Verveer attended the more recent meeting as well.

ViaSat joined the DeSIRE II Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Project Consortium, funded by the European Space Agency Integrated Applications Promotion program, European Defence Agency and industry to define regulations and civilian usage for satellite-controlled remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) also known as drones, said the company in a Tuesday news release. The company said it's taking the lead in developing the communication, navigation and sensing technologies for real-time RPAS command and control across Ka- and L-band satellites. ViaSat will help identify civilian service applications for RPAS usage such as environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance and emergency responses, it said. By the end of 2016, ViaSat said the DeSIRE II project is expected to complete a series of flight tests with the Piaggio Aerospace P.1HH Demo Hammerhead platform.