Key House lawmaker asks FCC to kill LightSquared network

The chairman of the House committee with GPS oversight called on the Federal Communications Commission to administratively kill a broadband network planned by startup LightSquared, but on Wednesday, FCC gave the company an extra two weeks to report on issues related to the network's potential interference with satellite navigation systems.

Based on multiple tests of the LightSquared system to date, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, which has jurisdiction over space and satellite systems, called on FCC to rescind the conditional operational waiver it granted LightSquared in January.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, whose membership includes other groups representing fire and police chiefs, sheriffs and ambulance operators, told FCC in a filing yesterday that the LightSquared system could interfere with a variety of public safety GPS systems, including radios, dispatch networks and cellular emergency 911 calls.

Turner said in a statement that a study by the National Position, Navigation and Timing Engineering Forum, a multiagency group that evaluates GPS technical issues, "provides concrete technical data to validate the GPS interference concerns of members of our military and of the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee. LightSquared's operations as currently devised, 'cannot successfully coexist with GPS' and would hinder our service members who are counting on an uninterrupted GPS capability to do their jobs."

LightSquared said it needed until July 1 to file the interference report, based on joint tests with the GPS Industry Council over the past two months. The company said it required more time for additional tests of the network on unspecified alternative frequency plans.

Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel for GPS receiver manufacturer Trimble Navigation Ltd., said Thursday that he found it ironic that LightSquared had asked for an extension since the company had pushed FCC to move quickly on the tests. Kirkland pinned the delay directly on LightSquared, saying the joint tests were managed by five groups, and only the group managed by the company had failed to meet its deadline.

Kirkland said if FCC did authorize LightSquared to begin operating its network of 40,000 base stations backed up by satellites it would amount to a "disaster" for GPS users.

Kirkland said Trimble and the GPS industry will continue to work with FCC on additional tests, but if the agency greenlighted the LightSquared system he predicted some companies would file lawsuits to protect GPS from harmful effects.

The LightSquared system operates in the 1525-1559 MHz and 1626.5-1660.5 MHz bands. In January, FCC directed the company and the GPS Industry Council to conduct tests to determine what effect that network would have on navigation systems that operate in the nearby 1559-1610 MHz band. Tests to date indicate that when operated in lower frequencies of its allocated spectrum, the LightSquared system had a "minimal" effect on GPS. But Kirkland said those tests were limited and there still could be "significant" interference in the lower band.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said that if FCC allows LightSquared to operate, first responders nationwide will have to replace the roof- and tower-mounted GPS receiver antennas used by police, fire and ambulance communications systems, as well as those used by state forestry, fish and game departments, which use GPS-based dispatch systems.

General Motors, in a filing with FCC on Tuesday, expressed serious concerns about the effect the LightSquared system would have on its OnStar navigation system used in 6 million vehicles for emergency road services and turn-by-turn navigation assistance. Tests at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico this April showed that "OnStar subscribers will experience significant degradation of GPS satellite signals within at least a quarter mile" of LightSquared towers, the automaker said.

GM said the Holloman test "demonstrates that harmful interference from LightSquared . . . operations to GPS devices is no longer speculative, but rather is a serious issue that should be thoroughly investigated and resolved." GM asked FCC to require LightSquared to conduct additional interference tests before allowing the company to start operating.

LightSquared did not answer an email request for comment.