Hughes and Xplornet signed an agreement to provide satellite broadband services to Canada on EchoStar 19 capacity. The next-generation high throughput satellite is due to launch in 2016, Hughes’ parent company EchoStar and Xplornet said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1strn0N). Under the agreement, Xplornet also “will take delivery of satellite gateways, operational and support services, and consumer user terminals in a program that is expected to be worth more than $200 million,” it said. Xplornet expects the capacity to enable it to meet the growing demands of its rural customers, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau should reject a petition from satellite companies to amend the FCC over-the-air reception device (OTARD) rules, Boston officials told bureau staff in a meeting Monday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1mSJuQL). The petition was filed by DirecTV, Dish and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association. Along with rejecting the petition to amend, the bureau should take up the long-pending 2012 satellite industry petitions against Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, said the filing posted Tuesday to docket 12-121. City officials in Boston and Philadelphia bemoaned the proliferation of dishes while an FCC decision is pending (CD April 22 p4).

The Commerce and State departments are issuing concurrent interim final rules to transfer export controls on spacecraft, including satellites, from U.S. Munitions List (USML) Category XV (Spacecraft and Related Articles) to the Commerce Control List (CCL), said notices from each department slated to appear in Tuesday’s Federal Register. Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department have been prioritizing revision to Category XV for months. The transfers are part of the administration’s export control revamp. Large portions of both rules will be effective Nov. 10, following a 180-day grace period to let industry adjust to the regulatory changes. The interim rules incorporate changes suggested through comments on the proposal published in the Federal Register May 24, 2013, and both agencies will accept comments until June 26. The Commerce rule (http://1.usa.gov/RAILVY) creates four new Export Control Classification Numbers in CCL Category 9. The controls on radiation-hardened and other microelectronic circuits will be removed from the USML June 26. International Traffic in Arms Regulations controls on software and technical data related to microelectronic circuits will also be removed then from the USML. The State final rule (http://1.usa.gov/RAILVY) will be effective Nov. 10, except for Section 121.1, which effective June 26 amends portions of Category IV (launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs and mines) that deal with spacecraft-launch vehicle integration and launch failure analysis services. In Category XV, certain commercial communications and remote sensing satellites will be subject to CCL controls after the Nov. 10 effective date. State is also transferring USML items to the CCL by limiting its scope of control on ground control systems and training simulators specially designed for telemetry, tracking and control of spacecraft. State will keep USML control on certain GPS receiving equipment, which will be up for export control changes in amendments to USML Category XII (fire control, range finder, optical and guidance and control equipment).

Inmarsat seeks access to the U.S. market using a proposed Ka-band satellite, Inmarsat-KA 63 W. The satellite will operate under the authority of the U.K., said the FCC International Bureau in a public notice Friday (http://fcc.us/1jIeSh3). Inmarsat would like to market access to provide fixed satellite service (FSS) using the 18.3-19.3 GHz, 19.7-20.2 GHz, 28.1-29.1 GHz and 29.5-30.0 GHz bands, the bureau said. Inmarsat also seeks a waiver of the commission’s rules to permit geosynchronous orbit FSS operations in the 18.8-19.3 GHz band on a non-interference basis, it said.

ViaSat started Exede Business, a high-speed satellite Internet service for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s available “in all or portions of more than 40 states covered by the ViaSat-1 satellite,” ViaSat said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1njBwiT). It offers speeds of 15 Mbps and a total monthly data allowance of 60 GB, it said. Half of the allowance is available during the peak data period between 8 a.m. and 3 a.m., “with an additional 30 GB available in the Early Morning Data Zone from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.,” it said.

Eutelsat and The International Media Associates (TIMA) signed an agreement for capacity on Eutelsat 10A. The satellite will provide satellite news gathering across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Eutelsat said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/Sx7xr8). Capacity also will be used for reporting from TIMA’s studios at its central London headquarters, Eutelsat said.

LightSquared isn’t yet providing commercial service using its ancillary terrestrial component authority in light of the FCC’s public notice that recommended a modification of the company’s satellite license. The wholesale satellite capacity company remains committed to working cooperatively with Congress, federal agencies and the GPS industry “to address the concerns raised by the GPS industry and others,” LightSquared said in a semi-annual report to the FCC posted Friday in docket 08-184 (http://bit.ly/1uf2J7Y). Beginning in 2012, the company made a series of filings that proposed solutions that would allow it to deploy terrestrial broadband service “in a way that ensures that GPS receivers are compatible with LightSquared’s operations,” it said. The satellites operated by LightSquared have performed nominally and as expected over the past six months, it said.

Eutelsat signed a distribution agreement with Wireless Innovation to use Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat satellite for communication services and connectivity for temporary and mobile offices to the utilities, renewables, construction, asset management and military sectors in Europe. Ka-Sat is optimized for broadband communications, Eutelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1u5bMYR). Its spotbeam configuration allows frequencies to be reused 20 times and takes total satellite throughput to beyond 90 Gbps, it said.

A federal jury awarded ViaSat $283 million in its patent infringement and breach of contract case against Space Systems Loral (SS/L). In U.S. District Court in San Diego, a jury said SS/L infringed three patents relating to the Jupiter-1 satellite, a court document said. The jury also said SS/L breached one or more of its contracts with ViaSat, it said. SS/L and its former parent company Loral said they plan to appeal. In 2008, ViaSat selected SS/L to manufacture ViaSat-1, and the award was contingent on SS/L’s “continued agreement to keep ViaSat’s revolutionary design and technology confidential,” said ViaSat’s complaint. “SS/L didn’t keep the technology confidential.” ViaSat filed the complaint after SS/L told ViaSat that it also was building the Jupiter-1 satellite for Hughes (CD Feb 6/12 p4). “Jupiter’s design is almost identical to ViaSat-1,” ViaSat said. Loral believes that SS/L’s conduct “was consistent with, and in due regard for, all applicable and valid intellectual property rights of ViaSat and that SS/L did not breach any contracts,” said Loral Vice Chairman Michael Targoff in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1k1IGCZ). “SSL has strong grounds for a reversal of the jury verdict, which we believe will ultimately result in vindication of our position.” Loral is obligated to indemnify SS/L for damages in the case after a “non-appealable” judgment has been entered, he said. ViaSat’s request for a permanent injunction prohibiting SS/L from further infringement is still pending, ViaSat said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1rtDlZK). If the case is appealed, an injunction would appear less likely, said Raymond James analyst Chris Quilty in a research note. If the injunction is granted, it could impact up to four satellites under construction at SS/L, Quilty said. Hearing for post-trial motions is set for July 22, the jury verdict said.

Orange Business Services seeks a license for a single 2.4-meter transmit/receive fixed satellite services earth station. Orange plans to operate the earth station in the standard C band, it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/1hrX1Wo). Orange also seeks a license for a standard Ku-band very small aperture terminal network “of less than 100 identical terminals operating in the continental United States on a transmit/receive basis,” said a separate application (http://bit.ly/1ns0QCX).