LightSquared Offers Adjustments to Deal with GPS Concerns

LightSquared offered to make some operational adjustments to its rollout plans as part of the continued effort to mitigate the disruption of GPS signals. LightSquared filed a technical presentation Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bmcxfm) at the FCC detailing the changes as part of an ex parte filing and provided information on the filing to reporters Friday. GPS interests were still reviewing the proposed changes, but reacted with initial skepticism. A LightSquared executive, who refused to be identified, said the government agencies seem to be in a “decision-making mode,” based on recent interactions.

LightSquared offered to begin service with power on the ground -- measured from at least 50 meters from the base station -- at no more than -30 dBm initially, with increases to -27 dBm in 2015 and -24 dBm in 2017, it said. LightSquared would also provide a stable satellite signal for GPS augmentation used for precision GPS services at the top of the MSS downlink band, 1555-1559 MHz, it said. A stable augmentation signal would mean precision GPS receivers would no longer need to search the entirety of the L-band for the signals, as they do now. Interference with precision GPS services, used in agricultural and surveying industries, is an interference concern even under plans to begin service further away from GPS signals.

LightSquared discussed the modifications during a meeting with the heads of the Office of Engineering and Technology, Wireless Bureau and Office of Strategic Planning and Policy, the ex parte filing said. The changes would add to LightSquared’s recently revised plans for rollout, in which it would operate initially only in the lower 10 MHz of its L-band spectrum. Lawmakers and government agencies raised continued concerns over the revised plans during a congressional hearing Thursday (CD Sept 8 p2).

The Coalition to Save Our GPS, aimed at preventing LightSquared interference with GPS, wasn’t ready to call the company’s filing a fix. “While we are continuing to review this latest proposal by LightSquared, it appears to be a positive step toward reducing, for some devices, the harmful interference to GPS signals confirmed during testing of LightSquared’s earlier incomplete proposals,” the coalition said. Still, the proposal “has not been adequately tested to ensure that GPS” wouldn’t be interfered with, the group said.

The LightSquared filing “is based on testing results from the FCC-mandated Technical Working Group study of LightSquared’s plans,” said the coalition. “However, the primary focus of the TWG tests was a spectrum configuration that LightSquared has now abandoned. The testing of the configuration that LightSquared now proposes to use -- the lower 10 MHz of its spectrum -- was only conducted on a limited basis shortly before the conclusion of testing. More complete testing is now needed to confirm the preliminary results on which LightSquared’s proposal is based."

The proposals leave a number of questions unanswered, said a GPS industry executive. Although the filing is “constructive,” a lot is left out, the executive said. It’s not exactly clear what would happen to the installed base of precision GPS receivers, the executive said. While LightSquared said it would retrofit those receivers with filters, some can’t be retrofitted and no actual filter yet exists, said the executive. Does that mean LightSquared plans to pay for the retrofitting, the executive asked: Also unclear is how this change would affect the government’s use of GPS.

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, continued in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday to push the agency to provide information on the waiver granted to LightSquared that would allow it to offer terrestrial-only service. Grassley, who has asked for the communications leading up to the waiver-grant among the commission, the White House and LightSquared parent company Harbinger Capital Partners, was recently rebuffed by Genachowski. Genachowski said the agency only adheres to document requests from members of Congress that chair committees with jurisdiction over the agency (CD July 28 p9).

Grassley said he’s disappointed the FCC refuses information requests from the 533 congressional members -- 99.6 percent of the elected representatives -- that don’t chair the Commerce Committees. The commission didn’t cite “actual legal authority” and “it is unprofessional, unreasonable, and downright odd for the FCC to demand compulsory process before providing what it would be obligated to produce under [the Freedom of Information Act] and what it should produce for the sake of transparency and accountability,” he said. Grassley also asked for additional information on communications between the FCC and other government agencies over the waiver requests, names of the FCC employees who worked on the waiver and any GPS interference data reviewed before the waiver was given.