Low earth orbit (LEO) altitudes are becoming problematic or carry sizable risks due to orbital debris, experts told us. Increased attention and research is focusing on LEO carrying capacity. Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg said those orbital issues will become a major factor in where operators decide to put constellations. It could mean operators wanting the competitive advantage from those orbital altitudes will use cheap satellites with a relatively low consequence for failure, he said. "It's a race to the bottom."

Charter Communications will ramp up broadband speeds throughout its network this year with more high-split deployments, CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday as the company announced Q4 results. The high-split upgrades allow symmetrical gigabit speeds or multi Gbps downstream, and are cheaper than network capital spending such as new nodes, he said. Rutledge said Charter will expand its 800,000-mile network by 100,000 miles over the next five years through Rural Digital Opportunity Fund funding. He said beyond RDOF, the company is using broadband stimulus money and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding to reach other rural areas, plus expanding into areas adjacent to subsidized builds. That rural spending, including RDOF and other subsidized rural projects, will be about $1 billion this year in capital expenditures, said Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer. Rutledge said Charter continues to work on DOCSIS 4.0 tech development, with recent tests delivering speeds of more than 8 GB downstream and more than 6 GB upstream. He said Charter is rolling out its 5G hybrid mobile network operation using citizens broadband radio service small cells in an unspecified market, letting people connect to CBRS small cells when they're not in Wi-Fi reach. Charter said it ended 2021 with 28.1 million residential broadband customers, up 1.1 million year over year and 15.2 million residential video subscribers, down 400,000. It reported 3.4 million residential mobile lines, up 1.1 million, and 8.6 million residential voice customers, down 600,000. Revenue was $13.2 billion, up $600 million. The stock closed up 5.3% at $590.47.

National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) ad hoc committee members pressed the FCC about the rationale for rejecting the proposed 1 db interference standard in its 2020 Ligado order. Thursday's meeting was one in a series as part of a NASEM independent technical review of the order contracted by DOD, with the committee assessing the potential for harmful interference to GPS and satellite systems for DOD operations (see 2012040043). FCC staffers spent roughly 40 minutes going over the order and rationale, and often pointed to aspects of the order when asked questions. Committee member Preston Marshall, Google engineering director, challenged the FCC for deeming 1 db as a defective interference protection criteria but then "walk[ing] away completely" from finding more suitable protection criteria. "What it boils down to ... there were no alternatives offered," replied Office of Engineering and Technology acting Chief Ron Repasi. The committee and FCC representatives discussed whether Ligado had an affirmative direction to fix interference issues in military equipment, or just to negotiate for a fix. The commission order wanted a program where DOD and Ligado work together to figure out interference issues, said Paul Murray, OET associate chief. He said GPS manufacturers know how their gear performs and how it would respond to Ligado signals. "I don't want to say it's easy," but certain determinations can be made with such discussions "by people who know how to think about the problem," he said. Asked about whether the FCC is obligated to ever respond to or act on the reconsideration petitions, Murray said that while there's no deadline, "there are lots of things that are moving out there that may influence" what the agency does.

With its Peacock streaming service growing faster than expected, Comcast plans to ramp up spending on content for it, executives told analysts during a quarterly call Thursday. CEO Brian Roberts said it will look at ways to expand its broadband footprint more aggressively, with government subsidies and new household and business formation potential growth opportunities.

The commercial space universe is moving toward satellites operating in close proximity, such as for satellite servicing and inspections, but the technology and the policies to allow such work is lagging, space policy experts said at a Secure World Foundation/Center for Strategic International Studies webinar Wednesday. As space becomes more congested and more nations and private sectors are in space, "the more states worry" about close approaches in geostationary orbit (GEO) and low earth orbit, said Almudena Azcarate Ortega, U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research associate researcher-space security and weapons of mass destruction programs. Space "already suffers from a significant lack of trust" and approaches done without consent or transparency would increase that, she said.

A second pass by the FCC at updating orbital debris rules might have to wait until a fifth commissioner is confirmed, space experts and commission staff told us. Commissioners approved an orbital debris rules update order 5-0 in April 2020, with some contentious issues in the draft moved to an accompanying Further NPRM (see 2004230040). An agency official said a draft order is potentially not a huge priority for Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, parked behind bigger priorities and not being vigorously pushed by staff. The chairwoman's office will have to move on it at some point, given the mega-constellation boom, the official said.

The U.S. can help mitigate orbital debris by such things as investing in better cataloging of debris, mandatory beacons on satellites to enable better tracking, and pushing a moratorium on anti-satellite testing, said commercial space operator and other speakers at a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy event. Debris remediation was the topic of a similar session last week (see 2201130054). OSTP Space Policy Assistant Director Ezinne Uzo-Okoro said the feedback from the space community will help guide a plan to be issued this summer for agencies on policy actions and R&D the U.S. should prioritize for orbital debris.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding Maine's prorated cable TV refunds law (see 2201040072) opens the door to other states pursuing similar rules, consumer and cable regulatory experts told us. Whether they actually will is less clear. The ruling reversing a lower court's rejection of the Maine law could mean a 3rd Circuit reversal of a lower court's agreeing with Altice that the Cable Act preempts the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities' prorating rule (see 2108240043), experts said.

FCC handling of designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless got probing Friday by Judge Harry Edwards as he repeatedly criticized the idea that ostensible investor protections gave Dish Network de facto control of the DEs when the FCC hadn't worried about those same protections in past DE situations. Judge Patricia Millett tore into the DEs' assertion that they had made substantive changes from the original terms of their investor agreements with Dish, in the nearly two-hour U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit oral argument (docket 18-1209). The DEs are challenging the FCC's 2020 rejection of the AWS-3 bidding credits -- the second time the agency did so (see 2011230062). New Street Research's Blair Levin said the panel appeared to side with FCC arguments, as was expected.

The U.S. government is a big generator of a lot of low earth orbit debris and should kick-start a nascent debris remediation market by becoming a big buyer of remediation services, said space companies and interests Thursday at a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) event. Speakers -- many of them from debris remediation startups -- made cases for government spending to give impetus to aspects of the market. There were calls for more clarity on the legal and policy framework around debris remediation.