US authorities have said that preliminary analysis of test results show that LightSquared technology causes “no significant interference” with mobile phones, but does produce “harmful interference” with the majority of other tested general…
US authorities have said that preliminary analysis of test results show that LightSquared technology causes “no significant interference” with mobile phones, but does produce “harmful interference” with the majority of other tested general purpose GPS receivers.
The findings were announced in a statement by Anthony Russo, the director of the National Co-ordination Office on behalf of the National Executive Committee for Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT).
According to the statement, a separate study by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had also discovered interference with a flight safety system for pilots.
Russo added that final analysis of the test findings will be completed over “the next several weeks”.
LightSquared’s CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, said in a statement that LightSquared was eager to work with the FAA on addressing an issue concerning terrain avoidance systems. He added that “we profoundly disagree” with the conclusions made by the authorities in relation to general navigation devices.
Ahuja said that the testing confirmed that interference issues had not been caused by LightSquared’s spectrum, but rather by “GPS devices looking into spectrum that is licensed to LightSquared”.
Ahuja said: “We have taken extraordinary measures – and at extraordinary expense – to solve a problem that is not of our making. We continue to believe that LightSquared and GPS can co-exist.”
