Matt Daneman

The Commerce Department's Office of Space Commerce is the natural home for authorization and oversight of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) missions, a parade of space interests told the National Space Council Monday. A similar NSpC listening session last week had numerous parties saying the lack of a single regulatory home for novel space missions is hurting the industry (see 2211140047).

NEW YORK -- Multiple deployments of satellite/smartphone communications face numerous regulatory and technological implementation hurdles, with many operators likely years away from being able to go to market, Globalstar Chairman Jay Monroe told us Wednesday. He and other executives discussed the company's partnership with Apple unveiled in September (see 2209070016) as part of an investor conference at the New York Stock Exchange. Monroe said Apple did "significant ... magic" to make the Globalstar-enabled iPhone 14 SOS messaging service, which went live Tuesday. It's not clear who would perform that for other satcom operators' announced plans, he said.

As the pace of novel space missions looks to rapidly take off in coming years, the U.S. commercial space economy is hurting from lack of one regulatory agency designated to authorize and oversee those missions, several speakers told the National Space Council Monday. NSpC Commercial Space Policy Director Diane Howard said Monday's listening session and another scheduled for Nov. 21 (see 2210130033) will provide fodder as the council comes up with a national space priorities framework.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's plans to remake the International Bureau into a Space Bureau and stand-alone Office of International Affairs (OIA) (see 2211030032) will likely get bipartisan support at the commission, former agency officials said. There was initial concern about the announced plan from House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., for potentially taking limelight away from the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act (see 2211040039), but those concerns seemingly have been papered over, a current commission staffer told us. We were told commissioners will likely see the Space Bureau as a good thing, especially if it can streamline the regulatory approval process for applicants.

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."

The California Public Utilities Commission hopes to issue a draft of its proposed broadband loan loss reserve fund program rules by late December or early 2023, to be followed by a comments cycle and a final vote in Q1 next year, said an aide to Commissioner Darcie Houck Tuesday during a virtual meeting of the commission. The $750 million fund's aim is helping local governments, tribes and nonprofits build broadband infrastructure, giving them collateral that leads to better borrowing rates and terms for bonds issued, said Justin Fong, CPUC senior regulatory analyst. During the presentation, Fong laid out staff proposals for the fund terms and what comments the commission had received in response. He said the staff proposal has the reserve fund providing principal coverage of 5%-20% of the project loan's total amount, depending on the perceived risk of the application, with eligible costs including credit enhancement, transaction fees and cost of the guarantor to issue. He said the CPUC had received comments from interested parties recommending varying principal coverage amounts, including up to 80% of project costs that serve unserved disadvantaged communities. He said the staff proposal recommended an applicant prioritization trigger once 80% of the fund is encumbered or the fund balance is less than 30%, but some interested parties said loan loss funds shouldn't be limited just to projects in unserved areas and that prioritization criteria be applied from the program's start.

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.