U.S. Cites Disruption by LightSquared, Sees No Fast Solution
January 17, 2012, 6:13 PM ESTBy Todd Shields
(Updates with quote from letter in fourth paragraph.)
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc. wireless service disrupts many global-positioning system receivers and there’s no practical solution to allow it to operate soon, U.S. officials said after nine months of tests.
“No additional testing is warranted at this time,” the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation & Timing said in a letter distributed by e-mail today. The inter-agency body advises the government on GPS technology, and its letter was a recommendation to the U.S. Commerce Department.
U.S. regulators are deciding whether LightSquared’s disruption of navigation equipment will keep the Reston, Virginia-based company from commencing high-speed wireless service to as many as 260 million people.
Tests by federal agencies unanimously show that original and modified plans by LightSquared “would cause harmful interference to many GPS receivers,” Ashton Carter, deputy secretary of defense and John Porcari, deputy secretary of transportation, said in today’s letter.
“There appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS,” Porcari and Carter said.
Faint Signals
The letter was sent to Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is coordinating the U.S. review. The Federal Communications Commission is to decide whether to approve LightSquared for commercial operation.
The findings discussed in today’s letter will inform the telecommunications administration as it coordinates a final recommendation to the FCC about LightSquared, Moira Vahey, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an e-mail.
GPS makers say LightSquared inappropriately plans to send powerful data signals on airwaves previously reserved mainly for faint emissions from satellites. They say LightSquared would disrupt navigation equipment in aircraft, boats, tractors and automobiles.
LightSquared proposed operating at lower power levels after earlier tests showed interference, and it has said that GPS makers should have planned to accommodate the company’s use of airwaves near those used by GPS devices.
Air Safety
Preliminary test results released last month showed that LightSquared disrupts an air-safety system that helps airliners avoid crashing into mountains and buildings.
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Jan. 5 put a network-sharing partnership with LightSquared on hold as the companies await U.S. clearance. A day earlier, Falcone joined FCC officials in a meeting where LightSquared participants emphasized rules that call for LightSquared to offer service to at least 100 million people this year.
LightSquared is backed by $3 billion from Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund. LightSquared may need more money by April, Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with Credit Suisse Group AG, said last month.
LightSquared Chief Executive Officer Sanjiv Ahuja in a Dec. 9 interview said the company would be be adequately funded through the government’s review period.
“We’ll have capital beyond when we expect FCC clearance to happen,” Ahuja said. “That should be the early part of next year.”
Tammy Sun, an FCC spokeswoman, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and telephone call.
Chris Stern, a Washington-based spokesman for LightSquared, didn’t immediately supply a comment.
--Editors: Michael Shepard, Andrea Snyder
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net
