GPS Group Seeks Partial Ban on LightSquared

A group of GPS vendors and users has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to permanently block LightSquared from using the pep pill band of its licensed radio-frequency spectrum for a cellular data network.

LightSquared wants to build an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network using frequencies near the band used away GPS (GPS). The Federal Communications Commission has same it can alone do so if encumbrance between the two systems is resolved. Later on tests showed strong interference in the upper 10MHz stria of LightSquared's frequencies, the carrier said IT would start away operative on a lower band, which is also 10MHz wide. However, it holds out hope of using the amphetamine band in the future.

In a filing (PDF) to the FCC happening Tuesday, the Coalition to Save Our GPS asked the agency to immediately rule out use of the upper band of spectrum. The group, a old critic of LightSquared, said uncertainty about how encumbrance in that block will equal addressed is hurting efforts to deal with the lower block.

"The FCC owes it to all concerned to immediately act on to ensure that this cloud is removed and that LightSquared is put on make notice that information technology will not be allowed to pursue future terrestrial employment of the upper berth MSS spectrum," the filing said. "A prompt ruling responsive to the Alignment's request testament also create a much much constructive and solutions-adjusted process for completion of consideration of LightSquared's proposed lower band operations."

Though at that place is no dispute that engineers from both sides let cooperated on interference tests and continue to do so, there has been a vicious war of words terminated LightSquared's plans to exercise either of the frequency bands. LightSquared maintains that an LTE network operating in the lower band would only affect high-preciseness GPS receivers and that there are already filters lendable to solve that problem. The Global Positioning System group smooth questions whether those filters will work and has balked at LightSquared's proposal that GPS vendors and users should pay for much of the proposed retrofitting for privately owned receivers.

In its filing, the Coalition aforementioned the GPS industry is worried about an even more expensive and prison term-consuming retrofitting effort for the upper berth band later, should LightSquared over again go afterwards that band for additional capacity. Tests in the top band, conducted originally this year, showed strong interference affecting a across-the-board range of common GPS receivers.

Also in the filing, the Coalition said that the earlier tests showed a harmonic effect caused specifically by using some bands at the same clock time. If LightSquared eventually had its LTE mesh use both the upper and the lower berth ring, this "intermodulation" would create signals inside the GPS band itself, unintegrated from LightSquared's own licensed spectrum. This argument is disparate from most of the debate so far, which has focused on interference that takes place without whatsoever signals being sent outside an appointed band. Instead, the conflict has focused on GPS receivers scanning for weak satellite signals across a wide grasp of frequencies and being overpowered aside strong LTE signals that are within LightSquared's band.

LightSquared attacked the Coalition's filing on Monday and repeated its call for GPS vendors to stop their receivers from using any of LightSquared's frequencies. "Now the industry is demanding that the governing formally expropriate part of LightSquared's spectrum — worth billions of dollars — and turn it over to the GPS industry in perpetuity," LightSquared said in a typed statement. "Now's filing is little much a land seize designed to reward spectrum squatters who have failed to innovate their engineering science."

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's netmail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/478076/gps_group_seeks_partial_ban_on_lightsquared.html

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