The US House of Representatives has voted to prohibit funding for the FCC to allow a company to offer commercial broadband operations until there has been a resolution on any interference to GPS.
The ruling was made in an amendment to a funding bill…
The US House of Representatives has voted to prohibit funding for the FCC to allow a company to offer commercial broadband operations until there has been a resolution on any interference to GPS.
The ruling was made in an amendment to a funding bill passed by the House on Thursday. It did not mention LightSquared by name, but the satellite/terrestrial venture seems implicitly to be the target, given its high-profile problems with GPS interference in recent weeks.
The move is a clear sign of the unease felt by many on Capital Hill at the perceived risk that LightSquared’s technology will interfere with crucial GPS services.
A LightSquared spokesman told TelecomFinance that the House’s move did not change the situation facing the company, since the FCC had already said that it would only allow it to begin operations once the GPS interference issue had been resolved.
The vote came after a House hearing that also saw a strong exchange of views on LightSquared’s technology and its effect on GPS.
Philip Straub, the VP of aviation engineering at GPS product manufacturer Garmin International, said that “operation of LightSquared’s proposed broadband terrestrial network will cause catastrophic harm to GPS service, and this potential harm cannot be mitigated in any practical manner”.
He said that Congress should put an end to “this dysfunctional exercise” and work to ensure that the FCC cancels the conditional waiver it granted to LightSquared in January.
LightSquared’s VP for regulatory affairs, Jeff Carlisle, said at the hearing that he took seriously the concerns of the GPS community.
He said that LightSquared aimed to resolve the GPS interference problem through three measures.
First, it will lower the power level used by its base stations.
Second, it will bring to a standstill any use of one upper 10MHz band that is close to the GPS band and arguably most likely to cause interference.
Third, it will start terrestrial operations only on those parts of the spectrum that “pose no risk to the great majority of GPS users”.
Through these measures, he said that LightSquared would be able to avoid interfering with 99% of GPS receivers.
“These steps are not inexpensive to us, and they are not easy, but they can and must be done,” Carlisle said.
“We are stepping up this commitment so that Americans can get the benefit of our significant investment in critical infrastructure, and continue to have all the benefits of a robust GPS system, and we hope the GPS industry will do the same.”
