LightSquared, a company that wants to build a network of 40,000 land-based towers i the U.S. for high-speed wireless transmissions, is continuing its fight. In a recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission, company officials state that a ruling proposed by the FCC staff that would effectively revoke LightSquared’s license to operate its network is “entirely unsupported by the law, science, and FCC policy and precedent.”
“Indeed, the commission’s proposal is wholly inconsistent with a proposal the commission made last week in the case of another terrestrial network that raised ‘interference’ concerns,” company officials said in the March 30 filing.
The company’s conditional waiver from the FCC to build the network was revoked in February after extensive testing discovered that the signals interfered with GPS signals. (Read Charles Spence’s Capital Comments blog on that decision here.)
LightSquared’s latest filing states that the FCC “need not and should not embrace the false choice presented by the GPS industry between preserving LightSquared’s ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) authority to deploy a wireless broadband network and maintaining GPS service. In fact, both goals can be achieved. The law, the equities, the facts, and the public interest demand that the commission seek to do so.”
“The FCC’s response in this matter is wholly incongruous and disproportionate,” said Jeffrey Carlisle, executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy for LightSquared. “The FCC Public Notice11-109 proposes to essentially turn its back on LightSquared and its multi-billion dollar investment in wireless broadband – after the Commission mandated that the company deploy its network on an accelerated timeframe. LightSquared’s proposed network is the only one that can be implemented quickly, and provide a wholesale alternative across the country to wireless companies and their customers.”
LightSquared’s filing documents that the company is the primary licensed spectrum user in the mobile satellite services MSS/ATC band, and that its use of that spectrum should be protected under the FCC’s own rules. The filing also notes receivers of the GPS industry are operating outside of their assigned spectrum and are not protected under FCC rules when doing so.
“The GPS industry has been well aware since 2005 that LightSquared had FCC approval to build a nationwide terrestrial network using its assigned spectrum, and as such, the FCC must work to implement a resolution that allows LightSquared to go forward…,” Carlisle said.
To add insult to injury, LightSquared’s filing notes that “remarkably, even as it has proposed to effectively terminate LightSquared’s terrestrial network, last week the commission proposed to assign new spectrum to another operator (DISH) whose terrestrial network also has raised interference concerns.”
“LightSquared is committed to continuing to pursue its rights to use its spectrum as repeatedly approved by the FCC, and remains willing to work with all interested parties to achieve a solution that best serves the broadband needs of millions of Americans across the nation,” the filing concludes.
For more information: LightSquared.com
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You would think by now that they would change the frequency range. I lose trust in this company with every effort they continue.