AST SpaceMobile is targeting Q1 2024 for launch of five of its Block 1 BlueBird satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it said in a call with analysts Monday as the company announced its Q1 2023 financial results. CEO Abel Avellan said each Block 1 satellite will have 10 times the direct-to-handset capacity of the company's BlueWalker 3 demonstration satellite, and its planned 25 Block 2 satellites will have 10 times the capacity of Block 1. The company said it's talking with a variety of launch operators about Block 2 launches. Avellan said AST has rough preliminary agreements and agreements of understanding with wireless carriers around the globe on use of AST service for supplemental coverage from space.

C-band satellite operators can submit their C-band accelerated clearing Phase II certifications starting June 1, the FCC Wireless Bureau said Monday in a docket 18-122 public notice laying out procedures. It also issued a PN opening what it said would be a final window for submitting C-band transition plan amendments. Those amendments also can be submitted starting June 1. C-band satellite operators pushed for certification procedures to be issued by mid-May for a June 1 filing window (see 2304180061).

The LoRa Alliance, established to support and promote the global adoption of the LoRaWAN standard, raised concerns about the supplemental coverage from space (SCS) NPRM that FCC approved in March (see 2303160009). “The LoRa Alliance agrees that the concept of supplemental coverage from space or via satellite allows important innovations not only in licensed but also in unlicensed bands,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-65. The NPRM “overlaps in many aspects with a potential framework” for an extension of coverage of IoT services at 902-928 MHz, but “there are several aspects that differ,” the alliance said. It urged the FCC to consider potential changes in the 915 MHz band parallel to changes proposed in the NPRM.

Earth observation startup Muon Space seeks FCC approval for a two-satellite non-geostationary orbit constellation for climate observation, it said in a Space Bureau application posted Friday.

Globalstar is starting to sign a variety of deals for use of its spectrum Band 53, including it and Qualcomm talking to the chipmakers global system integrator network with a private 5G service available over the band, company officials said Friday as Globalstar announced results for the quarter ending March 31. It said it's also pursuing a private network in Canada using Band 53, with that model to be replicated in other markets. Spain also granted terrestrial authority for the band, bringing the number of authorized countries to 11, it said. For the quarter, revenue was $58.6 million, up 79% year over year, driven by increases in service revenue and revenue from subscriber equipment sales, it said.

Maxar Technologies' purchase by private equity firm Advent International and minority investor British Columbia Investment Management is finalized, Maxar said Wednesday. The $6.4 billion Advent deal was announced in December (see 2212190010).

Saying ignoring FCC deadlines "has become DISH’s hallmark in this proceeding," SpaceX told the Space Bureau last week the agency should ignore the days-late Dish and EchoStar response to SpaceX's opposition to a Dish and EchoStar petition to deny. Dish didn't comment Monday. It and EchoStar petitioned the FCC to reject SpaceX's request to use the AWS-4 band and adjacent 2020-2025 MHz band for mobile satellite service direct to handsets (see 2303150048). Dish emailed us that its response filing "was not late: it was early. The Commission has not even placed SpaceX's application to use the 2 GHz band on Public Notice, or established a briefing schedule. Nor should it: granting SpaceX's modification would be contrary to more than a decade of Commission precedent, and would allow SpaceX to essentially block DISH from using the 2 GHz spectrum for the nation’s first greenfield 5G network.”

SpaceX's urgings that numerous other satellite operators face the same conditions as its second-generation Starlinks did (see 2301180049) don't offer any specifics as to why Starlink conditions would be relevant to Telesat's proposed operations, the Canadian satellite operator said Monday in docket 18-313. The second-gen conditions are specific to SpaceX and its methods and history, it said. The tens of thousands of Starlinks planned are more than an order of magnitude larger than what Telesat is planning, so it would be "unreasonable and even ridiculous to apply SpaceX’s conditions" to it, Telesat said.

The first step of OneWeb's two-part requested modification of its U.S. market access grant (see 2111050001), with slightly fewer satellites, was approved, but the second step, which would mean thousands more, is on hold, the FCC Space Bureau said in an order in Monday's Daily Digest. It said reducing the number of approved satellites in phase one from 720 to 716 doesn't raise spectrum availability concerns and won't materially affect competition in the U.S. It deferred acting on phase two, which would expand OneWeb's system to 6,372 satellites, and doesn't address phase two in the order.

Viasat's ViaSat-3 high-throughput satellite serving the Americas launched Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Viasat said Monday. It said the satellite should reach its geostationary orbital slot in under three weeks. CEO Mark Dankberg said the satellite "will multiply our available bandwidth, and enable faster speeds and more coverage especially for our mobility customers." SES's O3b said Friday its third and fourth medium-orbit mPower satellites launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9. It said mPower commercial service is expected to begin in Q3. William Blair's Louie DiPalma said in a note to investors long ViaSat-3 delays have "taken a toll on ViaSat’s residential business' though the satellite should enable Viasat to offer faster residential downlink speeds and higher monthly data caps and potentially even eliminate data caps altogether in some areas. However, it might not be enough to overcome residential broadband competition from SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper and fixed airless cellular providers, he said.