FCC Strongly Criticized For Lack Of Leadership On The
Issue
The House Subcommittee on Aviation, chaired by U.S. Rep. Tom
Petri (R-WI) held a hearing Wednesday to review the Global
Positioning System (GPS) as a critical part of transportation
infrastructure. (The) hearing brought focus on the importance of
the Global Positioning System to aviation and the broader economy.
Witnesses’ testimony further underscored the vital nature of
GPS as an element of transportation infrastructure, ensuring the
safe and efficient use of the aviation system,” said Chairman
Petri.
Representative Tom Petri
The witnesses, who included a diverse group of government
officials from the Transportation Department and the United
Nations, as well as representatives from airlines, general
aviation, and the GPS industry, took the FCC to task for allowing
LightSquared’s plans to advance as far as they have.
GPS is at the center of FAA’s Next Gen air traffic control
modernization program, which will optimize air traffic controller
performance, consolidate obsolete facilities, enhance safety
improvements, and improve operational efficiency of the national
airspace system. The Honorable John Porcari, Deputy Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified to the benefits of
NextGen, saying “The FAA and industry have invested as much
as $8 billion into NextGen. The FAA conservatively estimates that
the benefits of NextGen will total $23 billion by 2018 and over
$120 billion by 2030. In addition to the transportation
applications I mentioned, GPS is essential for the operations of
first responders, search and rescue, resource management, weather
tracking and prediction, earthquake monitoring, national security,
and critical infrastructure such as dams and power plants,
financial transactions, surveying and mapping, and industries such
as precision agriculture, where the ability to fertilize plants
with centimeter-level accuracy increases conservation, reduces
waste run-off, and saves American farmers up to $14-30 billion,
annually.”
As important to aviation safety and efficiency as GPS is, and as
far a reach as the GPS system has in the economy, the system is
vulnerable to interference due to a relatively weak signal
broadcast from space. Since current aviation operations, as well as
NextGen, are dependent on GPS, some in the aviation community have
pointed to potential negative impacts GPS interference may have on
aviation safety, air traffic control modernization, and job
creation within the aviation industry.
“Efforts must be made to ensure aviation safety and
efficiency benefits made possible by GPS are preserved,” said
Chairman Petri. “I was pleased to hear Deputy Secretary
Porcari’s announcement this (Wednesday) morning of the
proactive plan the Department will pursue to protect GPS safety and
efficiency benefits. We will work with the aviation community, the
Department of Transportation, and our colleagues to find the best
path forward to achieve that goal.”
“We propose to work with [the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration] to draft new GPS spectrum
interference standards that will help inform future proposals for
non-space, commercial uses in the bands adjacent to the GPS
signals, to strengthen existing national policy protection of
adjacent band spectrum," Porcari said. "We will ensure that any
such proposals are clearly communicated with stakeholders and are
implemented without affecting existing and evolving uses of
space-based PNT services vital to economic, public safety,
scientific, and national security needs.”
"GPS is critically important to the millions of customers who
airlines fly every day, and is the heart of a multibillion dollar
system to modernize the air navigation system," said A4A Senior
Vice President for Safety, Security and Operations Tom Hendricks,
who testified before the House Aviation Subcommittee. "The stakes
are too high for passengers, shippers and communities that rely on
air service to leave to chance our ability to utilize GPS to the
greatest advantage."
A4A urged the government to develop its GPS policy in
coordination with international, as well as domestic, authorities
in order to reflect the importance of protecting the GPS spectrum
throughout the world. In an encouraging first step toward a wider
national policy, the National Executive Committee for Space-Based
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, on Jan. 13, stated that it
intended to draft new GPS spectrum-interference standards.
The FCC, which was not represented at the hearing, has blocked
LightSquared from activating its network until the issues have been
resolved. But that is not enough according to John Foley,
representing GPS manufacturer Garmin. “In short, Garmin and
other manufactures like it have had their business greatly
disrupted by the failure of constituent parts of the government to
coordinate effectively among themselves,” he said.
LightSquared says the problem lies with GPS receivers, many of
which were designed under the assumption that the neighboring
spectrum would not be used for ground transmission.
Petri has publically sided with the GPS industry against
LightSquared, suggesting that LightSquared was using the spectrum
in “inappropriate” ways. LightSquared has formally
asked the FCC to require GPS devices to be compatible with other
transmissions.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, LightSquared spokesman
Terry Neil said the testimony was not unexpected. “Their
information is provided by the GPS industry,” he said.
“It would not be surprising, since the government relied on
the GPS industry to devise the tests and conduct them in secret
using a standard that does not reflect real-life
conditions.”
Asked whether LightSquared would withdraw its application, Neal
replied: “That’s absurd.”
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