O3b is seeking FCC International Bureau approval to expand its maritime earth station tests and commercial operations to up to 30 more foreign-flagged ships, it said in an IB filing posted Wednesday. The waiver would follow a variety of licenses and waivers the satellite company received in 2014 to operate maritime earth stations on U.S.- and foreign-flagged ships that communicate with its nongeostationary fixed satellite service system, O3b said. The 30-ship waiver would be for ships on routes that include the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, and transmit on the 27.6-28.4 GHz band and receive in the 17.8-18.6 GHz band, it said. The company also asked the waiver be granted by year's end "to ensure timely initiation of service."

Arianespace signed a variety of extensions to its ground service contracts for operation of the Guiana Space Center launch complexes, the company said Wednesday. The three-year extensions will run through the end of 2019 and cover maintenance and operation of ground facilities, it said. The contract extensions are part of the competitiveness plan it initiated in 2014, it said.

Intelsat will pay a $12,000 fine to resolve an FCC investigation into whether the satellite company improperly let another take its place in the line for reviewing satellite authorization applications, the Enforcement Bureau said in an order posted Wednesday. The investigation began in 2011, after Intelsat applied for a license to operate a new Ka-band satellite and then sold to ViaSat rights to operate a Ka-band satellite in the location for which Intelsat had applied for the license, the bureau said. The agency issued a notice of apparent liability (NAL) in 2013 (see 1312160053), carrying with it a possible $112,500 fine. Under the order, along with that smaller fine, Intelsat also will craft in the next 60 days a compliance plan "designed to ensure further compliance with the Satellite Queue Transfer Rule," including a compliance manual and employee compliance training. The order said it also cancels the NAL.

The FCC should require SpaceX to prove it can meet the experimental radio service non-interference criteria, because the company's latest submission on its planned microsatellite test "does little to address (concerns) about co-frequency interference," Intelsat said in an Office of Engineering and Technology filing posted Wednesday. SpaceX and Intelsat have spent months debating SpaceX plans for a satellite test in advance of a low earth orbit constellation (see 1510080038). While the submission clears up worries about collision avoidance, Intelsat said, the question remains whether SpaceX "can reasonably be expected to operate on a non-interference basis with respect to co-frequency (geosynchronous) operations." SpaceX hasn't addressed Intelsat calculations that its space-to-earth transmissions could increase the earth station receiver noise floor by almost 24 percent, and the data it submitted on transmit antenna radiation patterns "are near irrelevant" to assessing that interference, Intelsat said. Incumbent fixed satellite service (FSS) operators could use that data to run interference simulations, but "each incumbent FSS operator should not have to spend considerable time and resources determining the risk of interference posed by an experimental license application," it said.

Having already asked for FCC International Bureau approval to drift Intelsat 805 to 169 degrees east (see 1510050006), Intelsat now seeks modification of the satellite's authorization that would let it operate there, as well as an extension of the license term through Dec. 31, 2019. In an IB filing posted Tuesday, Intelsat said Intelsat 805 will co-locate with Intelsat 8, which will "be relocated slightly ... after some of its traffic has transitioned to Intelsat 805." Intelsat 805 was launched in 1998 and its license term is to expire July 18, Intelsat said.

Stifling competition is the real reason behind the Wi-Fi Alliance's opposition to Globalstar's proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), Globalstar said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-213. It responded to a Wi-Fi Alliance filing posted Thursday in which it said Globalstar's interoperability tests were inadequate and the proceeding should be closed (see 1510160032). On the contrary, Globalstar said, it "has focused on and performed all of the technical work necessary to demonstrate that TLPS is compatible with other unlicensed services." While the Wi-Fi Alliance was invited to take part in testing, the group observed bits of a Globalstar demonstration at the FCC Technology Experience Center in March and didn't attend lab testing, the company said: "The Alliance continues its strategy of complaining from afar without adding any meaningful evidence to the record." Along with testing its TLPS in Chicago over the summer, Globalstar said it also deployed it in a District of Columbia middle school. "Given the tremendous potential consumer benefits that TLPS offers ... why is the Alliance now demanding that the FCC end this proceeding?" Globalstar asked. "The only parties that would gain from terminating this proceeding are, unsurprisingly, the entrenched and powerful members of the Alliance who seek to prevent an innovative alternative to their own service offerings." Wi-Fi Alliance didn't comment.

Iridium Communications made its first voice and data ground-test call over its Certus broadband network being carried on its Next satellite constellation, it said Tuesday. Iridium said the voice and data call was the first combined use of the capabilities of three Certus components: the broadband satellite terminal, Next and upgraded capabilities in the company's terrestrial gateway. Certus will introduce an initial data speed of 352 kbps and a voice codec which will operate at twice the current bit rate of Iridium’s current generation offerings, and eventually will allow data speeds as high as 1.4 Mbps for a single user terminal once Next is fully deployed, Iridium said. It has said it expects Next to begin commercial service late in 2016, and said Tuesday that Certus will start beta testing as Next satellites come online.

Intelsat sought FCC special temporary authority to use a variety of its Ku-band earth stations for telemetry, tracking and command services for its Galaxy 11 satellite as it drifts from 55.6 degrees west to 60.1 degrees east. The drift is expected to start no earlier than Nov. 15, with the drift taking six months, Intelsat said in International Bureau filings posted Monday (see here, here and here). Intelsat said it plans to use its Castle Rock, Colorado; Ellenwood, Georgia; and Hagerstown, Maryland, earth stations for the drift tracking and command. The drift is to help meet temporary customer demand at 60.1 degrees, Intelsat said.

Space Systems/Loral and Intelsat will partner to provide a communications satellite and satellite services to Azerbaijani satellite operator Azercosmos, SSL said Tuesday. The satellite -- Azercosmos' second -- is to sit at 45 degrees east and provide direct-to-home, government and network service to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, it said. The satellite -- Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 -- also will provide continuity of service for Intelsat 12 at 45 degrees east, SSL said. The satellite is scheduled for a 2017 launch, SSL said.

Furuno Electric will be marketing Iridium Communications satellite services and products in Japan, including offerings for the Iridium Next satellite constellation, under a deal announced by Iridium Monday. Furuno also will develop part of its satellite communications service portfolio with Iridium.