LightSquared Developing Upper L-band Proposal, Touts Independent Testing
LightSquared will soon file its own proposal to help define the future for the upper 10 MHz of the L-band, said Executive Vice President Jeff Carlisle during a company press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday. GPS interests recently filed a request at the FCC for the agency to declare the upper 10 MHz out of bounds for terrestrial services forever (CD Nov 9 p7). LightSquared also said independent testing of newly designed precision GPS filters show that coexistence of GPS and LightSquared’s terrestrial service is possible, and urged the government to begin the required further testing.
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LightSquared’s L-band license gives the company a 99-year lease for the spectrum, meaning to declare the spectrum permanently off the table isn’t reasonable, said Carlisle. Carlisle didn’t provide much detail on the proposal but said to expect it “shortly” and that the proposal is a result of discussions with stakeholders. A GPS industry executive speculated that the proposal may firm up the timeline for use of the upper 10 MHz. Without more detail, it’s unclear how the proposal would affect the GPS opposition, said GPS executives. The GPS industry has voiced increased concern with the uncertainty in that band, saying innovation has suffered (CD Nov 10 p12).
LightSquared also touted recent independent testing of precision GPS devices at Alcatel-Lucent labs. While the testing doesn’t replace the required government testing, it shows the solvability of the problem that the GPS industry has said was unsolvable, said LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja. The NTIA and FCC said this year some retesting of general navigation devices would be necessary, as would further testing of high-precision GPS devices. So far, NTIA has finished with the retesting of general navigation devices and is reviewing the results, said an NTIA spokeswoman. LightSquared estimates the high precision testing will finish by next month, though the NTIA spokeswoman said the company hasn’t submitted the filters LightSquared wants approved.
A bevy of executives and public officials from federal and local governments helped LightSquared make its point Wednesday. Among them were former Senators Byron Dorgan and Tim Hutchinson, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry. Hutchinson urged the federal government to “get out of the way” of LightSquared’s innovation and job creation, and Berry said now was the time to move forward to help rural communities through LightSquared’s planned service. LightSquared also said it has been working with three high precision GPS makers, all members of the Coalition to Save Our GPS.
GPS interests reacted with skepticism. “We look forward to studying the new test results,” said Jim Kirkland, general counsel at Trimble and a leader of the Coalition to Save Our GPS. “It’s important to keep in mind that these are LightSquared-sponsored testsseparate from” the government testing and “one input into an overall analysisof the effect of LightSquared’s planned operations on critical GPS uses.” The test results don’t “address proven interference to hundreds of thousands of existing high-precision GPS receivers in a wide variety of critical uses” and “LightSquared still refuses to accept the financial responsibility for addressing interference to existing devices, and so has not offered a comprehensive solution in any way, shape, or form,” said Kirkland.
Asked about the financial responsibility, a LightSquared spokesman said the company “has already invested $160 million to solve a problem created by poorly designed GPS devices” and “it’s time for commercial GPS device manufacturers to take responsibility for the problem they created.”