Wed, Nov 09, 2011
Requests That FCC Halt Development Until Full Accuracy
Assured
Congressional lawmakers have called on the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to halt further action in granting
a waiver for upstart telecommunications provider LightSquared to
deploy its proposed nationwide 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)
network, until that company demonstrates those powerful wireless
signals will absolutely not interfere with existing Global
Positioning System (GPS) receivers.
“While we understand the importance and benefits of
providing high-speed internet to rural areas, such innovations
should not threaten current established GPS and add more
unnecessary burdens to small businesses,” reads a letter sent
by House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-6-MO)
(pictured) and eight other lawmakers to FCC Chairman Julius
Genachowski. “Further, we request that the Commission not
proceed with approval of LightSquared’s proposal until
federal testing reveals that there will be no interference with
GPS, thereby ensuring that small businesses will not have to incur
significant monetary burdens to try and filter potential
interference to their GPS reception devices.”
The letter follows an October hearing before the committee,
which included testimony from GPS users and industry
representatives, as well as LightSquared executive Jeffrey
Carlisle. In his remarks, Carlisle asserted that
LightSquared’s proposed remedies to the interference issue
– moving its signal to a frequency further away from
bandwidth used by GPS, or deployment of signal filters for new and
existing receivers – would resolve the issue for “99
percent of the GPS users.”
Graves replied those solutions still wouldn’t be good
enough. “This is not an acceptable answer or solution for
general aviation,” the letter states. “The FAA has very
specific requirements for safety and one percent tolerances are not
acceptable – 100 percent accuracy is needed to ensure a safe
flight for general aviation.”
NBAA has been actively involved in efforts calling for
LightSquared to demonstrate technology fully compatible with GPS.
Earlier this year, the Association joined the Coalition to Save Our
GPS, which now has more than 200 members. That group is committed
to resolving the threat to GPS and preserving its benefits for
industries, government and citizens.
In related news, an industry group dedicated to preserving the
integrity of the GPS signal has put a dollar amount to the
potential impact from LightSquared’s proposed terrestrial and
satellite network. As NBAA reported, in late October the Coalition
to Save Our GPS published a white paper estimating the cost to the
various agencies that rely on GPS to be $245 billion.
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