LightSquared Hopes GPS Interference Study Ends Suit

Objections to LightSquared plans to hand over wireless licenses to its post-bankruptcy owners faced a midnight July 1 deadline in FCC docket 12-340. Though that change in control is the final piece needed before U.S. Bankruptcy Court can approve the satellite company's emergence from bankruptcy, LightSquared sees just as big a moment coming in 11 weeks, when the results of a study it commissioned on interference issues between GPS services and broadband will be presented to the FCC (see 1506250008). That Roberson & Co. study will be what LightSquared senior adviser Reed Hundt said would be “the best mid-band plan for America.”

The Department of Transportation is working on crafting its study that would cover much the same ground. The GPS industry indicated it has concerns about the legitimacy of the Roberson work. "While we welcome the participation of LightSquared consultants, any further analysis of the technical issues should be informed by input from all of the relevant stakeholders, rather than the one-off efforts of an interested party," said the GPS Innovation Alliance in a statement Wednesday.

LightSquared has been in regulatory tug-of-war with Deere, Garmin and Trimble, which according to the GPS alliance's website are members. The dispute with those companies and the federal government is over the spectrum adjacent to the Global Navigation Satellite Service (GNSS) bandwidth used by the GPS companies, with LightSquared wanting to use it for its planned ground-and-satellite-based LTE broadband network. Currently, LightSquared isn't able to use any of that spectrum except for 5 MHz being used in a buildout requirement, said Hundt, a former FCC chairman. The GPS industry and federal government raised concerns about those LTE signals potentially interfering with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum space. LightSquared hopes the Roberson study leads to the FCC reversing its 2012 decision that blocked the company's terrestrial network plans.

LightSquared's "best plan" would “make the most out of 'Midtown Manhattan' spectrum” -- that L-band spectrum used by LightSquared downlinks and uplinks and by GNSS -- the nickname contrasting to the so-called “beachfront property’ spectrum subject to the broadcast auction, said Hundt, who will be a member of LightSquared’s post-bankruptcy board. The Roberson study will focus on receiver design and network use, and “needs to make sure that the positioning industry is better off, not worse off,” Hundt said. “The positioning industry deserves to have a predictable roadmap for the next 20 years. [Roberson] is also going to deliver the solution for how this 'Midtown Manhattan' spectrum can lower the price of wireless broadband to the consumer. The more spectrum available to wireless broadband carriers, the lower the cost, the lower the price to consumers.”

LightSquared is asking for FCC help in bringing in Deere, Garmin and Trimble to discuss the Roberson study (see 1506290073). “We said now is the time for Roberson to get underway -- if they want their technical and business information to be studied, they need to share it now,” Hundt said. If the GPS companies decide not to take part, “We’d have to go the long way around the barn, buy the devices off the shelf, get a microscope and look inside,” he said. And LightSquared has been in a separate legal battle with those three and the U.S. GPS Industry Council, having sued them in November 2013 for FCC revocation of the company’s spectrum license, forcing it into bankruptcy. That case continues to work its way through U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The Roberson study also could be the basis for settling the civil suit, Hundt said. “Everybody knows that any settlement of the lawsuit must include a good outcome for the positioning industry and for the use of the spectrum for wireless broadband.” The Roberson study “covers the exact same topic as ought to be covered in any settlement,” he said.

The GPS industry is interested in the DOT study, not the Roberson one. It said in its statement that it's "actively engaged with the FCC, DOT and other government stakeholders to drive consensus around next steps. Contrary to LightSquared’s recent suggestions, this is not simply a private matter between three GPS companies and LightSquared, but is important to all GPS users who rely on this critical technology every day."