LightSquared FOIA Games

Last Wednesday, just before the start of the four day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Federal Communications Commission set up a special website to deal with Freedom of Information Act requests related to its almost year-long regulatory proceedings on whether or not it should allow start-up wireless carrier LightSquared to build a network of 40,000 cell towers that could knock out GPS signals or herald a new era of broadband communications for rural America and a cure for the common cold, depending on who you listen to.

Don't feel bad if you did not spend the weekend trolling through this data dump -- there's nothing new in it. The FCC site contains links to public records in two related LightSquared proceedings, including one with 3,349 comments filed since June 30.

The FCC site also includes copies of correspondence with sundry members of Congress, the FOIA response equivalent of stale beer, as this stuff has also been previously released.

But, the agency hinted that the really good stuff may yet come. "The FCC is still in the process of releasing documents responsive to the FOIA requests and will inform all FOIA requesters when we have concluded releasing documents," it stated.

GPS World struck out on its LightSquared FOIA request to the Transportation Department, the magazine and website reported on Nov. 15.

Transportation withheld two of 13 relevant pages in part, and 11 pages in their entirety in response to a GPS World request for the department's communications with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration regarding potential LightSquared interference with the GPS signal. The two pages Transportation did release were blank except for the salutation and signature.

Inside GNSS, which covers GPS and other satellite navigation systems, pointed out last week that when it comes to LightSquared matters, the FCC really likes to release information just before Thanksgiving. The FCC put out the first public notice of the LightSquared network plans on Nov. 19, 2010, "with comments due on December 2 and reply comments due on December 9, 2010 -- a timeframe with the Thanksgiving [holiday] in the middle of it that allowed only an abbreviated period for comments," Inside GNSS said.

I wonder what kind of LightSquared action the FCC plans for this Christmas.