Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted Dish Network designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless until Dec. 16 to file a cert petition, per a notation Monday in SCOTUS docket 22A401. Northstar counsel Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy requested the extension to better familiarize himself with the case. Northstar and SNR are challenging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's upholding the FCC's denial of AWS-3 auction bidding credits for the DEs (see 2206210065). "It is difficult to imagine a regime less consistent with due process or basic principles of administrative law," said Clement in the filing. "Yet the D.C. Circuit saw nothing wrong with the FCC’s behavior, or with the fact that Northstar is now on the hook for nine-figure penalties for failing to comply with amorphous standards that have survived scrutiny thus far only because the agency has always worked with applicants to cure any shortcomings between the applicants’ front-end guess of what the agency wants and the agency’s back-end, totality-of-the-circumstance determination."
Space security experts think Russia is unlikely to engage in armed attacks on U.S. commercial satellite assets despite its reportedly considering commercial satellites aiding the Ukrainian military effort as legitimate military targets. Though such an attack might be justified legally, nondestructive attacks like jamming or blinding satellites via lasers are far more likely, we were told.
Noting an FCC structure built for another era without mega constellations or space entrepreneurship, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel unveiled plans Thursday for an International Bureau reorganization including creating a Space Bureau to handle all space-related issues and a stand-alone Office of International Affairs. Agency and space industry officials said one hoped-for effect would be swifter processing of space operation applications. The commission didn't comment on expected time frame for the reorganization or what kind of additional resources the new bureau might have.
Dish Network's tower-building pace for its national wireless 5G network -- roughly 1,000 a month -- is putting it within "spitting distance" of meeting its next 600 MHz buildout milestone, well ahead of the 2025 deadline, CEO Charlie Ergen said Wednesday in a call with analysts as Dish released Q3 results. He said the $2 billion the company announced it was raising for its 5G network will cover the costs of meeting its milestone of reaching 70% of the U.S. population.
FCC efforts to foster nascent in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) activities face a challenge because doing so falls outside the agency's job docket, said space operators and others Tuesday in docket 22-271. There also were multiple calls in the ISAM docket comments for identification of spectrum for ISAM activities. A number of commenters pushed for a licensing regime involving a license for a category of services, rather than trying to make emissions fit into the traditional non-geostationary or geostationary framework. The commissioners adopted its ISAM notice of inquiry in August (see 2208050023). Replies are due Nov. 28.
Spanish-language movie producer Carlos Vasallo turned down use of YouTube's copyright management tools but is now trying to force the service to provide a nonexistent version of Content ID tailored to his preferences, defendants Google and YouTube told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Monday in an answer to an amended copyright infringement complaint by Vasallo's Athos Overseas. The defendants in docket 1:21-cv-21698 said Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors protect them from infringement claims. They said by not requesting the removal from YouTube of allegedly infringing content, Vasallo and Athos failed to mitigate damages. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Tuesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that Nevada's Video Service Law (VSL) doesn't allow Reno to seek a private right of action as it tries to get video franchise fees from streaming services Netflix and Hulu. In the opinion (docket 21-16560), Judges Susan Graber, Michelle Friedland and Lucy Koh said they wouldn't address the parties' disagreement over the meaning of "video service provider" under VSL "because it is clear that Reno lacks a cause of action under both the VSL and the Declaratory Judgment Act." Oral argument was in September (see 2209190055).
Charter Communications is dealing with higher-than-expected costs for its Rural Deployment Opportunity Fund buildout but also is having more success than expected in penetration and number of passings being developed off RDOF projects, CEO Tom Rutledge told analysts Friday as the company announced Q3 results.
While residential broadband growth remains anemic at Comcast, wireless subscriber numbers and revenues are accelerating. Residential broadband had been a revenue driver, but it won't be a significant one at least for the near future, CEO Brian Roberts said on a call with analysts Thursday. But Comcast is "still in the very early growth phase" in wireless, he said.
Cable operators' online inspection files will move in mid-November from using a cable operation and licensing system (COALS) ID for login to commission registration system (CORES) logins, FCC Media Bureau Chief Engineer Jeff Neumann said Wednesday. In a bureau webinar about the agency's updated COALS system, Neumann said incentive auction reimbursement program logins that use COALS ID won't transition to CORES because that program is near completion and should wrap up within a couple of months. The retirement of COALS ID log-ins for CORES is probably the biggest of the various key changes in the COALS update, he said. The system dates back about 20 years and was in need of update, bureau Deputy Chief Hillary DeNigro said. The move to the updated system, made earlier this month, should mean better security and reliability and also brings cable antenna relay service filings online, she said. Neumann said the updated COALS improves its public search capabilities and makes most external filings easily printable. He said users now will get emailed updates after acceptance of filings and payment of fees, improving communication. He said a user guide and an FAQ section are being prepared.