> Lockheed Martin, European Union Fault Latest LightSquared Network Plan
> BY: BOB BREWIN
> NextGov
> 01 August 2011
>
> Lockheed Martin Corp. and OnStar are both asking the Federal Communications Commission to
> deny the latest plan by LightSquared to operate a national broadband network in frequencies
> near the band used by GPS navigation systems, due to interference problems. Lockheed operates
> a satellite system for the Federal Aviation Administration that improves GPS accuracy, while
> OnStar has installed GPS-based navigation systems in 6 million vehicles.
>
> The European Commission, the executive body for the 27 countries in the European Union, also
> opposes the LightSquared plan. It told the FCC that it had "deep concern" that the LightSquared
> network would cause harmful interference to signals broadcast by its Galileo satellite navigation
> system slated to begin operating within four years. A number of agricultural organizations that
> use GPS to support precision farming operations also asked the FCC to halt the LightSquared
> deployment because it would render GPS-enabled agriculture tools useless.
>
> LightSquared and its predecessor companies have operated a satellite based mobile communications
> systems since 1996 on frequencies near the GPS band. In January, the FCC gave the company
> tentative approval to build a national, terrestrial network with up to 40,000 cellular
> towers operating in the same frequency band.
>
> On Thursday, LightSquared inked a 15-year, $9 billion deal with Sprint, the country's third-largest
> wireless carrier, to build the terrestrial network. The deal will give Sprint the option
> to use up to 50 percent of the capacity of the LightSquared network.
>
> FCC authorization for the LightSquared terrestrial network was conditional, pending tests
> conducted in cooperation with the GPS industry to determine if the high-powered signals
> from the cell towers interfered with GPS receivers.
>
> Those tests revealed that when operating in the upper band frequency block of 1545.2-1555 MHz,
> the LightSquared system would hurt the performance of a significant number of GPS receivers
> that operate in the adjacent 1559-1610 MHz band.
>
> The company filed a new plan with the FCC on June 30 to initially limit deployment to its
> lower frequency band, which it said would not adversely effect the performance of 99 percent
> of GPS receivers except for highly precise receivers used in agriculture, mining and
> construction.
>
> The FCC comment period on the latest LightSquared plan closed July 30. Lockheed Martin, in
> its July 29 filing, said test reports submitted to the FCC showed that "a significant number
> of GPS receivers and applications would be impacted by terrestrial operations" in the lower
> LightSquared band.
>
> Lockheed Martin said any interference to the reception and use by aircraft of the signals
> broadcast by the Wide Area Augmentation System satellites it operates for the FAA "significantly
> reduces the efficiency of the National Airspace System and quite possibly endangers safety
> of life and property." Last Wednesday, an internal FAA report leaked by the GPS industry
> concluded that the LightSquared network would disable GPS for aviation use over the continental
> United States.
>
> Heinz Zourek, director general of the European Commission's directorate for enterprise and
> industry, told FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in a July 19 letter that analysis conducted
> by the European Space Agency showed that "transmissions from LightSquared base stations do
> indeed have considerable potential to cause harmful interference to Galileo receivers
> operating in the United States."
>
> Zourek added that while international regulations allow the FCC to decide on spectrum matters
> within the United States, those regulations make it clear that national systems "are expected
> not to cause harmful interference" to systems operated by another country.
>
> Thomas Jeffers, vice president for public policy of the OnStar division of General Motors,
> said in a July 29 filing with the FCC that "we are not confident that LightSquared's assertion
> that transmissions in the lower 10 MHz of its spectrum will not cause GPS interference. We do not
> have enough data to support this conclusion." Jeffers urged the FCC to require LightSquared to
> conduct more tests before receiving permission to start operations.
>
> Christopher Pachta, a precision agricultural economist with the Farmway Cooperative in Concordia,
> Kan., wrote in July 27 comments that "We use GPS every day for accurately applying crop protection
> products and fertilizers . . . If GPS became unreliable or unusable it would cause us to
> lose money due to decreases in efficiency and the investments we made into GPS based technologies
> would be worthless."
>
> Pachta warned the FCC that "the loss of reliable GPS would essentially set farming practices
> back 10 years or more. Furthermore, without the benefits of GPS, farmers will be unable to
> supply enough food, fuel and fiber to take care of an ever growing world population!"
> LightSquared and the FCC have until Aug. 15 to respond to these comments.
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