Intelsat executives lobbied for parity in FCC satellite regulatory fees, said the company in a filing about a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "Burdensome regulatory fees place U.S. satellite operators at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign-licensed competitors that do not have to pay these costly fees, despite the fact that foreign-licensed satellite operators utilize Commission resources." An NPRM proposed to assess such fees on non-U.S. licensed satellite operators with access to the country's market, said the company in the filing posted Friday to docket 12-201. "Commence the necessary further review of this issue so that the Commission has the information needed to adopt this important reform as soon as possible."

Globalstar opposed Iridium's revised proposal for what the FCC should do on spectrum for the companies. Iridium said last month it wants expanded spectrum sharing and operator-to-operator coordination with Globalstar (see 1504230054). The agency should reject Iridium's revised request to use the spectrum of its chief competitor, said Globalstar in a filing posted Friday to RM-11697. "Iridium has no legitimate need for this spectrum, and its use of these frequencies would cause harm to Globalstar and its customers." The revision "would still encroach upon Globalstar’s exclusively licensed mobile satellite service" spectrum, gaining access to its frequencies at 1616-1617.775 MHz on a shared basis, said Globalstar. A lawyer for Iridium had no comment.

The FCC International Bureau Satellite Division granted DirecTV an extension through July 31 to meet its “launch and begin operations” milestone for its RB-2 satellite, said an order in Friday's Daily Digest. It said DirecTV met the first three milestones applicable to RB-2: (1) enter into a binding contract; (2) complete critical design review; and (3) commence construction. "We therefore reduce the remaining bond from $3 million to $750,000," the bureau said.

Ex-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt on behalf of LightSquared asked the FCC "to move towards finding" that the company's spectrum can be used for terrestrial services and that spectrum at 1675-1680 MHz should be made available for those purposes. Speaking last week with Philip Verveer, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's senior counselor, and Wheeler wireless legal aide Renee Gregory, Hundt "reviewed the status of various proceedings and the actions of sister agencies," said a LightSquared filing posted Wednesday to docket 12-340. The company recently noted to the commission that it's waiting to develop service because of the agency's 2012 public notice recommending a waiver to the firm be vacated and LightSquared's ancillary terrestrial component authority be put on hold (see 1505050023). The company has sought the reallocation of the 1675-1680 MHz band by auctioning National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spectrum (see 1501270049).

SES Americom said Intelsat is wrong to want the FCC to eliminate the two-degree separation requirement. The commission should keep the spacing and "increase the baseline power levels to correspond with the typical operational levels of today’s spacecraft," SES representatives told International Bureau officials Monday, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-267. "Two-degree spacing facilitates new entry by providing a predictable baseline at which parties can operate prior to completing coordination with their neighbors," and without it, new entry could be "blocked indefinitely by incumbents based on conservative ITU coordination criteria," said SES. "It is not surprising that Intelsat is the sole party arguing for elimination of two-degree spacing; since Intelsat’s ITU filings are among the oldest in the world, relying on ITU priority instead of two-degree spacing would benefit Intelsat at the expense of new entry." SES wants the same spacing as for conventional C- and Ku-band spectrum for fixed satellite services in the extended, unplanned segments of those bands. Ending that separation would "remedy the competitive harm unfairly imposed on U.S. licensees and align U.S. licensing" with the ITU, Intelsat told bureau officials in March (see 1503270037). “Intelsat believes that the FCC’s two-degrees rules put U.S. licensees at a competitive disadvantage to non-U.S. licensees and make it harder for U.S. customers to enjoy the benefits of new satellite service offerings that utilize smaller antennas," the company responded Thursday. "We commend the FCC for examining the issue of whether -- in today’s satellite marketplace -- these rules continue to serve the public interest.”

Hughes Network Systems lobbied the FCC to back its proposal for Connect America Fund Phase II recipients of USF money for broadband to meet a test that doesn't favor any platforms while ensuring the services have low latency. It would measure if the services “'offer sufficiently low latency to enable use of real-time applications, such as VoIP' while remaining consistent with the Commission’s commitment to technological neutrality," the satellite broadband provider said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90, referring to its March 27 proposal in that docket. During a lobbying meeting last week with Wireline Bureau front-office and other staff, a lawyer at Hughes parent EchoStar, which shares with Dish Network Charlie Ergen as chairman and a top shareholder, also asked the agency to "without delay" adopt Remote Areas Fund rules, the newer filing said. After telcos decide whether and how much CAF Phase II funds to get out of a total of up to $10 billion over six years, the FCC can award USF money to other companies (see 1504290066).

Correction: The number of volt-ampere-hours Hughes Network Systems recommends there be in modem backup batteries is 3000 (see 1505070054).

The sole technical characteristic of an appropriate battery backup for a Hughes modem is 3000 volt-ampere-hours, said Hughes Network Systems in an ex parte filing at the FCC. The FCC asked the company what would be the necessary characteristics of a uninterruptible power supply device that is capable of providing eight hours of backup power, Hughes said. Those battery backups are available at major consumer electronic stores, the ex parte letter said.

Samsung is using the SES Industry Days event in Luxembourg through Thursday to demonstrate the first DVB transmission of high-dynamic-range Ultra HD TV, using content transmitted via an SES satellite directly to a Samsung set using “hybrid gamma” HDR technology, the TV maker said Wednesday. The demo is a “major milestone for the Ultra HD broadcast chain,” Samsung said. It shows for the first time how industry can launch new HDR services over DVB, “which can fully exploit the capabilities of the next generation of consumer displays,” it said.

The FCC should adopt proposed rules to add 22 MHz to U.S. wireless broadband spectrum inventory and ease the congestion that's diminishing the quality of Wi-Fi service at high-traffic 802.11 hot spots and other locations, Globalstar said in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 13-213. Globalstar also expressed support for the rules because they would let the company provide low-power terrestrial mobile broadband service in its own licensed and unlicensed spectrum, it said. Globalstar General Counsel Barbee Ponder and others met with officials including International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre and Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. Others have been skeptical that the company's mobile broadband service is ready to be deployed because of concerns over interference (see 1504280038).