GENEVA -- The Association of Andean Satellites is pressing at the World Radio Conference for a three-year extension to get a Ku-band satellite aloft. Brazil supports the request but is getting ready in case the slot becomes available, officials said after talks between Brazil and Colombia Monday during the WRC. Brazil “almost certainly” will use for public service broadcasting the TV frequencies freed in the switch to digital, the Brazilian Minister of Communications said. Disagreement over frequencies used by the U.S. military will be aired, he said.

ICO’s proposed in-car video service will need twice as many repeater sites as satellite radio operators to deliver the high-quality video it expects to broadcast, ICO Pres. Craig Jorgens told us Tues. ICO plans to use the ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) authority given to mobile satellite service (MSS) operators to build repeaters in the 2 GHz band, Jorgens said, noting that the company plans to apply this year for the authority using the FCC’s expedited process.

Cablevision might skip the next spectrum auction, using partnerships with existing wireless operators to add mobile products to its bundle of services, CEO James Dolan said Tues. in an earnings teleconference. “It’s yet to be proven whether wireless is going to be an effective part of a bundle to offer to the home,” Dolan said: “We continue to study our options.” Cablevision didn’t bid in the recent auction and its controlling family withdrew from the process, though industry peers were among the biggest spectrum buyers (CD Aug 21 p8). The company Tues. reported mixed Q4 2006 results, forecasting a slowdown in subscriber additions for 2007.

Significant upfront payments made by cable companies and DBS operators in the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction that starts Wed. is likely good news for the FCC, which wants to see a strong auction, for competition in general, and for equipment suppliers who would get a new set of customers. But the potential bids by the deep-pocketed contenders means T-Mobile, which needs spectrum to stay competitive, must dig deeper into its coffers, sources agreed.

Disney showed off its newest mobile phone service at CTIA. The service, which follows Mobile ESPN, will be available nationwide in June, the company said. The company will offer a package of exclusive Disney content to subscribers, including access to Radio Disney, content from Disney Zone and Vault Disney. Disney will sell customizable “themes” for the phones that will include ringtones and wallpapers, the company said. The service will let parents control the numbers their kids can dial and receive calls from. It will also allow parents to track their kids’ locations using GPS technology, Disney said.

Sprint Nextel said it expects to spend $600 million this year on 800 MHz rebanding and record another $800 million in costs, primarily for spectrum assets. The rebanding expenditures are part of the $6.3 billion the company projects for capital spending, it said in a status report. The carrier also projected revenue will hit $41 billion based on an assumption of high single-digit to low double-digit growth in wireless subscribers. “We have a vast array of competitive differentiators,” CEO Gary Forsee said in a company statement: “We believe our cable joint venture will provide a significant new avenue for customer growth and a substantial time-to-market lead in the race to provide bundled service offerings. Taken together, we are better positioned than any company to take advantage of what we see as a huge opportunity ahead for mobility and data services.”

The U.S. needs communications systems that are “operable and interoperable” during crises, the White House said in a report issued Thurs. White House homeland security advisor Frances Townsend’s report analyzed the U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested how to improve operations.

USDTV -- the subscription-based over-the-air terrestrial DTV service -- will ship a 2nd-generation set- top box in first half 2006, along with optional MPEG-4-to- MPEG-2 transcoders and 250 GB hard drives as it sets a goal of landing 2 million subscribers within 5 years, CEO Steve Lindsley told the UBS Global Media Conference in N.Y. Thurs.

Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) said a “proof of concept” demonstration of its hybrid satellite/terrestrial wireless network should quell doubts about the technical feasibility of a hybrid satellite/terrestrial system using small handsets. Industry analysts said the demo should embolden potential investors and terrestrial partners. Tests centered around the CDMA air interface, but MSV officials said Wed. demos based on other technology platforms, including WiMAx, are planned.

The PCS industry spent more than $750 million to relocate about 3,600 microwave links from the 1850-1990 MHz band, PCIA said Wed. The association’s Microwave Clearinghouse cost-sharing activities for microwave relocation officially sunset April 5. The FCC in 1996 designated PCIA, along with Industrial Telecom Assn. (ITA), to administer the Commission’s cost-sharing plan for microwave relocation. The plan aimed to assure that when more than one PCS company benefited from relocating a particular microwave user, PCS companies shared those costs. “For the carriers who initially cleared the spectrum at their own expense, the cost-sharing process identified more than $400 million of reimbursement opportunities to be paid by subsequent benefiting licensees in the PCS band,” said PCIA Microwave Clearinghouse Mgr.-Operations Chris Holt. He said PCIA’s clearinghouse procedures “expedited deployment of more than 150,000 PCS base stations.” PCIA Pres. Mike Fitch called the association’s Microwave Clearinghouse “a world- class example of a non-profit, non-governmental entity helping execute equitable and efficient transitions for licensees occupying valuable spectrum.” PCIA said 6 other countries have studied its Microwave Clearinghouse as a possible model for spectrum relocation solutions.