Matt Daneman

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.

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.

The FCC's processing round regime for non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) systems "is kind of messed up" because it was built for a world of few applicants and even fewer systems, so it needs changes, SpaceX Senior Director-Satellite Policy David Goldman said Tuesday at New America’s Open Technology Institute event on satellite spectrum sharing. However, the commission's current proceeding shows there's little agreement among space interests, he said.

Cleanup of existing orbital debris could be complicated by lack of clear international norms on how to handle small objects, space law experts told us. Many said clean-up efforts will almost surely focus on big objects in space since technology to deal with small debris is still under development.

At a Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations (CONFERS) conference Wednesday.

Commercial space operators increasingly are interested in nuclear power sources in space, and it’s unclear how the FAA launch license process, which includes a payload review, will handle those cases, said space lawyer Franceska Schroeder Friday at University of Nebraska's annual space law conference in Washington. She said the National Space Council has said there will be more government focus on managing such issues from a payload and on-orbit operation perspective. Tackling the emerging threat of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) -- something deliberately coming close to commercial or military satellites for a prolonged period of time, often for purposes of espionage or intellectual property theft -- carries a variety of legal and technological hurdles, space national security experts said. Better space situational awareness is a must but won’t fix the problem, said Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation program planning director. Norms are tough to define, and "keep-out zones" are difficult to protect, he said. Guardian satellites working as blockers are of limited use for many threats, he said. Under the Outer Space Treaty, there is no such thing as national appropriation in space, so claiming a zone falls within a gray area legally, said Lt. Col. Susan Trepczynski of the Air Force Operations and International Law Directorate. As space gets more congested, defining such zones becomes increasingly difficult, she said. Lt. Col. Seth Dilworth, Air Force deputy chief-space law, said the drawback with creating RPO norms is it handcuffs U.S. behavior when other nations that are engaged or likely to engage in RPOs aren't likely to take up those norms. Images taken in space of other things in space are rapidly becoming a commercially available product, Weeden said. He said NOAA's once-heavy restrictions on non-earth imaging are loosening notably more quickly than the agency's restrictions on earth remote viewing have.

Major satellite constellation operators are making best efforts at tackling harmful effects of their satellite systems on astronomy, but that’s not enough and regulation needs to be considered, astronomy experts said Wednesday in Washington at a University of Arizona space law and policy seminar.