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Posted on 02/15/2012 5:51:02 AM PST by lump in the melting pot
The Federal Communications Commission announced it had revoked its conditional approval for the controversial LightSquared national broadband network.
The proposed network was to use airwaves once reserved for satellite-telephone transmissions and had been given a conditional approval by the FCC last year.
The FCC’s move follows a statement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which held that “there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference [with GPS] at this time.”
LightSquared’s plans have been strongly opposed by users of GPS systems, which include the military and the aviation industry. The NTIA tests demonstrated that the company’s network, even in a scaled-back version, would interfere with GPS signals and systems.
LightSquared, a Virginia-based company that is controlled by Philip Falcone, a hedge fund manager, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the testing of the network was “severely flawed” and that it “remains committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry.”
LightSquared blames the GPS industry for making devices that stray into adjacent airwaves, namely the spectrum that LightSquared was planning to use.
The company has been very vocal about the problems it perceives exist with GPS technology. In the company’s blog, Jeff Carlisle, executive vice president for regulatory affairs, wrote that it appeared that the GPS industry had become “too big to fail,” noting that “GPS manufacturers have been selling devices that listen into frequencies outside of their assigned spectrum band – namely LightSquared’s licensed band.” He continued on to say that “The GPS industry has leveraged years of insider relationships and massive lobbying dollars to make sure that they don’t have to fix the problem they created.”
Hussein wouldn’t cross soros. I wonder what the end game is?
Buddy, you need to talk to an actual RF engineer, rather than your hedge fund and political buddies.
The spectrum on either side of the GPS frequencies were purposely put there. They are what is known as a "guard band".
GPS transmissions are very low power, at least by the time the device receives them. It takes a significant amount of digital signal processing to extract the signal from the background noise.
If you transmit a signal at a much higher power in an adjacent frequency, it "blanks" the receiver. That's why those guard bands were reserved for OTHER low-power satellite transmissions. GPS devices don't listen outside their assigned frequencies, but they are affected by high power transmissions NEXT to the frequencies they listen to.
Filtering is possible, but difficult -- especially at the differential power levels we are talking about. However, even if it is possible, GPS devices have been designed and built for the past two decades with the expectations that those guard bands were in place.
Then, you came along and paid off a bunch of politicians to change the rules. They saw $$$, but they are a bunch of idiots that know nothing about the technical issues.
They sold you a pig in a poke. You got burned. It's your fault for not doing your due diligence.
Not any more, buddy.
Take a hike.
Their product really had to be bleeding into the GPS bandwidth because this company's CEO is one of the ones pals.
The screwing around with GPS transmissions has serious national security implications as well as screwing around with my GPS golf, hunting, camping, fishing, navigation aid{s} is dangerous to their health.
I forgot to explain why the signal is much higher power.
These guard bands were originally reserved for satellite-to-ground transmission. However, the politicians sold/assigned them to LightSquared, knowing full well that LightSquared intended to use them for terrestrial transmitters.
Yes, that's right: they wanted to put up a network of towers similar to a cell phone network, transmitting at a (relatively) high power, right next to the GPS band.
Glad to see the FCC finally does something right.
Look for a Sunday weeper piece in the NYT bemoaning the loss of this “high tech” industry.
Kind of like trying to hear a whisper when SOMEONE IS SCREAMING IN YOUR EAR!
Actually I think this is pretty simple. They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Cats like Soros operate most effectively in fog and under cover of darkness. Shedding too much light on his plans tends to severely screw things up for him.
Don't give the FCC too much credit.
They granted LightSquared a "conditional" waiver in January, 2011. Now, it's been withdrawn.
But, it was fishy in the first place. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightSquared#Interference_issues:
The initial modification order to allow terrestrial-only devices onto LightSquared's network was filed on November 19, 2010, with comments due on December 2, 2010, and reply comments due on December 9, 2010. This time frame has the US Thanksgiving holiday squarely in the middle of it, and allowed little official time for correspondence (six business days between filing and comments due, five business days between comments due and reply comments due).
Grover Norquist won’t be happy.
Insider short sale?
That's nice. Now what is the FCC doing to prepare for the complete loss of GPS when the next extreme solar event takes place?
(crickets)
Don't be silly! You know that it is to be able to shut down all civilian communications when the revolution begins!
It's better than that. Obama actually invested $95,000 in LightSquared in 2005, but sold it for a $13,000 loss eight months later.
One has to wonder if he was promised something "under the table".
If you transmit a signal at a much higher power in an adjacent frequency, it "blanks" the receiver.Well and succinctly stated, both in this post and the previous one.I forgot to explain why the signal is much higher power.
These guard bands were originally reserved for satellite-to-ground transmission. However, the politicians sold/assigned them to LightSquared, knowing full well that LightSquared intended to use them for terrestrial transmitters.
Yes, that's right: they wanted to put up a network of towers similar to a cell phone network, transmitting at a (relatively) high power, right next to the GPS band.
Spot on from another RF engineer who has done cellular system planning as well as RF product development (incl some of the original GPS HDU (High Dynamic User Equipment) 'boxes' and manpack receivers) on a number of different bands.
Do you recall why we are re-farming public safety to 700 MHz and into the low end of 800 MHz?
Yup, because financial interests who were involved with NexTel located their 'cell sites' operating in the SMR 800 MHz band interfered with the public safety radios used by personnel 'out in the field' ... necessitating the re-location of NexTel 'services' adjacent to cellular at the high end of 800 MHz ...
Maybe the FCC figured that out (the interference issue) this time, or maybe not ... perhaps it was determined on the merits of the NTIA field study and the studied opinion of the RF experts alone ...
In any case, they made the right call for a change.
Now what is the FCC doing to prepare for the complete loss of GPS when the next extreme solar event takes place?#1) On what basis? What is going to be impacted to the point 'it (equipment) fails'? Please be specific ...
#2) It isn't the FCC's responsibility ... are you aware of who is responsible for GPS operation and planning?
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