LightSquared Demands That the FCC Perform Tests
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Unfortunately,
LightSquared is going to have to find a sugar daddy in someone who isn't
running for re-election. It's hard to believe that anyone in Congress is going
to anger millions of GPS owning voters in an election year, regardless of how
much money is stuffed into various PACs.
At
this point it would seem that LightSquared is running out of options. The panel
that tested its technology said it interferes with GPS. The Federal
Communications Commission granted LightSquared the right to use the spectrum
under an absolute requirement that it not interfere with GPS. The company,
meanwhile, is claiming that it owns the radio spectrum in question, but in
reality, the frequencies were originally allocated for satellite mobile
operations. When LightSquared found out that its technology needed ground-based
repeaters to work, it effectively tried to convert a satellite frequency to a
terrestrial frequency. In the process, it decided it needed approximately
40,000 high-power ground-based transmitters.
"LightSquared
does not like the test results, so it is attacking the testers," said Jim
Kirkland, vice president of Trimble Navigation and a member of The Coalition to
Save Our GPS, a group opposed to the LightSquared plan. "Last Friday's
report reflects the unanimous view of nine different federal government
departments and agencies that LightSquared's proposals would interfere with
critical functions, including the Department of Defense, the FAA and the
Department of Homeland Security. The technical evidence speaks for itself."
LightSquared,
in its statement challenging the test results, has asked the FCC to take over
the testing itself. This is something that the FCC has already said it won't do,
and the PNT executive committee was formed by the government for specifically
that purpose.
Now
that Sprint has set a deadline that LightSquared can't meet, it would seem that
its days are numbered. The tests have shown that its technology doesn't work as
the company promised it would. It hasn't shown a realistic means of preventing
interference on a massive scale, and it's about to lose the support of Sprint,
which was originally planning to build the terrestrial portion of the network.
What's
left? Not much. It's hard to imagine a sane investor pouring more money into
what appears to be a lost cause unless their goal is to gobble up the remaining
assets, such as the spectrum, for pennies on the dollar. Now that Ichan has
bought some of the LightSquared debt, it seems like he's taken what is probably
the fatal bite. The only remaining question is how long it will take
LightSquared to finish bleeding to death and expire.
Wayne Rash is a Senior Analyst for eWEEK Labs and runs the magazineÃÃÃs Washington Bureau. Prior to joining eWEEK as a Senior Writer on wireless technology, he was a Senior Contributing Editor and previously a Senior Analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. He was also a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. Previously, he ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek.He is a retired naval officer, a former principal at American Management Systems and a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine. He is a regular contributor to Plane & Pilot Magazine and The Washington Post.
