US regulator FCC is calling for more testing to ensure satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared’s technology does not cause “harmful interference” to GPS systems.
Responding to mitigation techniques put forward by LightSquared at the end of June…
US regulator FCC is calling for more testing to ensure satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared’s technology does not cause “harmful interference” to GPS systems.
Responding to mitigation techniques put forward by LightSquared at the end of June to resolve the interference issues, including a commitment to use frequencies in the lower 10MHz of its spectrum rather than in the upper 10MHz, the regulator said additional tests would be necessary before a decision can be reached.
“The results thus far from the testing using the lower 10MHz showed significant improvement compared to tests of the upper 10MHz, although there continue to be interference concerns, e.g, with certain types of high-precision GPS receivers, including devices used in national security and aviation applications,” it said in a public notice on 13 September.
On 9 September, Lawrence Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Department of Commerce, sent a letter to call for LightSquared and the interagency National Executive Committee for Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (Excom) to produce “as expeditiously as possible” a testing plan for cellular and general navigation GPS receivers.
Strickling was writing on behalf of the NTIA, the government body that advises the US President on telecoms policy.
Strickling asked for the plan to be designed to allow for the completion of testing and analysis by 30 November.
In his letter, Strickling also revealed more details about NTIA’s efforts to evaluate LightSquared’s technology and its potential effects on GPS. This follows on from the analysis into the issue by a Technical Working Group (TWG), made up of representatives of LightSquared and the GPS industry, which was completed in June.
He wrote that all parties, including LightSquared, now accepted that its operations in the lower 10MHz signal band that it holds would cause “unacceptable interference” to high-precision receivers (a different kind of receiver to the cellular/general-navigation receivers) that had been tested by the TWG.
He said that LightSquared was working on the design and manufacture of a filter that would mitigate this interference, adding that LightSquared had accepted it would not start commercial operations “unless and until” federal agencies can test the filter and decide whether it is acceptable in stopping the overload.
Taking this into account, the NTIA saw no reason why the testing on high-precision receivers should be recommenced before it had been presented with the new filter.
Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin claimed that there are two relevant “triggers” in LightSquared’s recent infrastructure sharing agreement with mobile operator Sprint Nextel.
These triggers are that LightSquared needs to be authorised to use a 5x5MHz pair by 30 September and a 10x10MHz pair by 31 December.
Chaplin said: “We believe it will be difficult to complete all the testing and to receive authorisation by either date. This gives Sprint the right to walk away from the agreement; however, even if Sprint allows more time, it is unlikely that they will start deploying equipment for LightSquared until the testing is complete.”
LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja published a robust statement on 15 September in defiance of pressure from the GPS industry.
In it, Ahuja argued that the company had spent “eight long years” gaining regulatory approvals and that it had received support from regulators with both Democrat and Republican backgrounds.
“This entrepreneurial company is poised to create as many as 15,000 jobs as [it] spends US$8bn to help provide American consumers with cheaper, better cellular service,” he said.
“It’s time Washington politicians stop using LightSquared as a pinata. Smart engineers, not political rhetoric, should decide LightSquared’s fate.”
