Expect more cable operators to roll out wireless mobility service in 2022 or 2023, analysts told us. The mobile subscriber growth Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice have had since starting their services likely won't level off for some time, they said.

Some orbital altitudes are becoming increasingly dangerous because of growing amounts of orbital debris, Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow for orbital debris monitoring company LeoLabs, said Thursday in a University of Washington webinar. He said 780 km to 850 km is becoming a hotbed of debris generated by the U.S., China and Russia. He said 1400 km is also becoming problematic, compounded by atmospheric drag helping clear lower altitudes over time, but at 1400 km "it's there for centuries." The U.S. is "woefully behind the rest of the world" on the need for active debris remediation, with French, Japanese and European space agencies "way ahead," he said. "It's been seen as something we can worry about decades later. We need to worry about it now." Mega constellations "are really the victim" rather than the causes of increasing orbital debris concerns, McKnight said. He said operators like SpaceX and OneWeb are "operating very responsibly" and going beyond government regulatory requirements, though they still will likely face difficulties because of debris from old payloads and rocket bodies. Russia's anti-satellite missile demonstration in November (see 2111160063) raised the likelihood of a collision in some orbits by a factor of two, generating 500 to 2,000 trackable pieces of debris and probably ten times that in untraceable debris, he said. Technology has changed notably since 1997, when the 25-year guideline that's now become an international norm was established, he said. Electric propulsion systems would accommodate requiring satellites be deorbited one or five years after end of mission, though no nations have gone that route, he said. He said along with technical solutions to remediate debris, more preemptive efforts are needed to prevent debris generation, such as increased information sharing by satellite operators and inter-government trust.

Satellite interests resisted keeping non-terrestrial services out of the 70/80/90 GHz bands or making fixed satellite service (FSS) secondary to terrestrial use there (see 2112030056), in docket 20-133 reply comments this week. The FCC is considering high-altitude platform systems operations in the bands. Amazon Kuiper said it backs a "unified, service-agnostic, light-licensing and link registration framework -- such as the one proposed by SpaceX for 'pencil-beam' antennas" as a way to increase use of the bands while fostering coexistence. It said FSS being secondary in the bands would be inefficient, especially since that spectrum's terrestrial use is limited to high-throughput transmissions over very short distances. Geneva Communications also said it backs SpaceX's proposal. The Satellite Industry Association said there are already co-primary FSS spectrum allocations in the bands and some satellite operators are developing networks that will operate there. SpaceX suggested coexistence in the bands via equivalent isotropically radiated power limits toward the horizon for FSS gateways, creating small coordination areas and eliminating the need for keep-out zones or caps on the number of earth stations. Aeronet Global's study of coexistence between scheduled dynamic data links and FSS in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands doesn't take a broad-enough look at possible SDDL interference to geostationary and non-geostationary operations in the bands, with GSO earth stations particularly susceptible to interference from SDDL aircraft transmissions, Hughes said. It said the Aeronet study claims that any alignment of SDDL aircraft beams and GSO satellite beams will be brief don't consider the stationary position of GSOs relative to the ground, which contributes to a longer aircraft/GSO beam alignment. Aeronet outside counsel didn't comment. TechFreedom said the FCC should allow use of 70 MHz beyond 5G. “The lone holdouts to broadening the uses of the 70 GHz are some 5G users, who covet the spectrum for wireless backhaul operations, to the exclusion of new uses (and apparently to the exclusion of existing allocations as well),” the group said: “Engineering changes, history changes, and we can’t afford to go ‘all in’ on 5G if it means robbing all other users of spectrum and shutting down technological innovation. Instead, the FCC must balance the need for more 5G spectrum with existing allocations and other spectrum users’ needs.”

A relatively steady stream of complaints about media bias or "fake news" lodged with the FCC against cable news networks in 2020 became a torrent in the days after the 2020 presidential election, per our analysis of more than 1,500 complaints obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. Many complaints also urged the FCC to police the cable networks, but agency watchers called that unlikely.

A growing number of localities are suing video streaming platforms seeking franchise fees, and more lawsuits are expected in 2022. Tax experts think such suits face legal difficulties. Netflix and Hulu, typically the defendants of such suits, didn't comment.

Four companies will pay $6.3 million in penalties for 911 outages last year, the FCC announced Friday. Some said they had made procedural changes to avoid a repeat. Lumen will pay $3.8 million, Intrado $1.75 million, AT&T $460,000 and Verizon $274,000. Both Lumen and AT&T said their blackouts involved work by vendor Intrado. See our news bulletin here.

In a hearing delayed nearly three hours by last-minute negotiations between Intelsat and its creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips of Richmond approved the company's plan for emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The unanimous backing of the plan by creditors, given the competing claims, is "a remarkable achievement," he said. Intelsat said the actual emergence will be early next year. Our news bulletin is here.

The FCC non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) spectrum sharing NPRM adopted 4-0 Tuesday (see 2112140062) and released Wednesday includes an added question about use of a throughput analysis that considers unavailability, per our side-by-side comparison with the draft NPRM. Also added were questions about how the agency could encourage NGSO operators to deploy systems capable of sharing beam-pointing data and how it can modify its NGSO sharing rules "to incentivize flexible and efficient deployment." The NPRM includes new questions about how sunsetting NGSO protections would better promote competition and if the sunset trigger should start at the date of license grant, the beginning of the license period or some other time.

Don't get too prescriptive in rules to prevent SIM swap and port-out fraud, telecom interests said in FCC docket 21-341 replies that were due Tuesday. Comments last month requested flexibility (see 2111160036). Local number portability administrator (LNPA) interests said they don't have a role in verifying subscribers' identities. Saying the record doesn't show that SIM swap and port-out fraud is widespread, CTIA said the commission should expand its list of “secure authentication method" examples. "Enshrining authentication requirements into rigid regulations is not an effective way to fight the bad actors behind these fraudulent schemes," it said. It opposed prescribing specific authentication methods or being rigid in authentication requirements. Opus Research urged looking at other authentication methods, such as voice biometrics. Carrier Bandwidth said creating rules solely oriented to wireless services and numbers is "unlikely to effectuate the Commission’s stated objectives." It said the FCC should "lead the industry to develop and adopt improved competitively neutral text enablement methods and procedures that are consistent with established solutions in the toll free texting space." North American Portability Management said the agency should reject proposals for the LNPA to play a role in disputes between carriers and in identification of numbers. Iconectiv said the Number Portability Administration Center service management service and LNPA aren't involved in the pre-port process, nor do they have access to customer information, and thus don't have a role in identification of a customer or the request and response of information exchanged between current and new service providers.

Intelsat said it plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2022, following U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips of Richmond OK'ing its emergence plan Thursday. The hearing, set to start at 10 a.m., was postponed three hours as Intelsat and creditors hammered out remaining issues. That unanimity, given the competing claims, is "a remarkable achievement," Phillips said.