A major federal agency which has been involved in testing the proposed LightSquared LTE network has concluded that there is no practical way of preventing the interference between LightSquared’s network and GPS satellite systems. A unanimous decision taken by nine federal bodies that make up the agency concluded that LightSquared’s proposals didn’t contain any practical solutions for resolving existing interference issues.
This decision has come as a big blow for the company’s hopes for setting up a mobile terrestrial network. Lightsquared had initially received a waiver from the US Federal Communication Commission giving it permission to set up an LTE network (on a frequency range used by much weaker satellites) provided it attended to issues with GPS interference before it went public with its plans. However, the company’s network caused strong interference with GPS systems, a round of tests conducted last year revealed, thus forcing the company to alter its initial proposals.
The testing based on the new proposals began in November. These tests were conducted by the PNT ExComm (Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee, a national space based organisation) on the request of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NITA) and the FCC. In charge of monitoring federal GPS activities, the body is headed by the deputy secretaries of defence and transportation. A memo released by the body concluded that “based upon testing and analysis, there are no possible practical mitigations or solutions that would allow the company to launch its services in months to come. Also no additional testing has been warranted this time”.
In response to the memo, LightSquared’s executives have slammed the process of testing and analysis, repeating its earlier charge that the body is biased in favour of the GPS industry. The company even went to the extent of calling for an investigation with allegations stating conflicts of interest by certain members of the PNT advisory board, which is known to govern PNT ExComm’s actions. LightSquared reasoned that the Chairman of the advisory board Bradford Parkinson was on the board of directors of Trimble Navigation, which is against LightSquared’s plans. LightSquared even requested the FCC to reconsider the testing process as both PNT ExComm and the PNT advisory board had dropped the idea of testing the GPS filters that the company believes will solve most of the interference issues commonly noted with high precision GPS devices.
