LightSquared Says Network Won’t Jam GPS
This story appears in the July 4 print edition of Transport Topics.
Despite LightSquared Subsidiary LLC promising major changes to its nascent broadband network, truckers and technology companies said they are not convinced the revamped system won’t jam Global Positioning System devices critical to freight operations.
“This is a continuing concern,” Kara Ross, a spokeswoman for UPS Inc., said last week.
LightSquared filed a plan for an altered network with the Federal Communications Commission on June 30. In it, the company promised to operate at lower-spectrum frequencies and run its planned 40,000 ground stations at only half-power. This change means 99.5% of all GPS devices would be unaffected, according to Chris Stern, a spokesman for LightSquared.
However, opponents remain unconvinced.
“Virtually nothing has actually changed in this new proposal relative to what LightSquared pledged at the outset of testing,” charged the Coalition to Save Our GPS. “The power levels don’t change. Nor do the frequencies. In fact, the only thing that has changed is the order in which the channels within the band adjacent to GPS would be deployed.”
The Washington-based coalition includes companies from a variety of industries, including UPS and FedEx Corp.
A study released June 22 by NDP Consulting Group, Washington, D.C., concluded LightSquared’s signal degradation would cost the transportation industry $10.3 billion a year. Even if just half of GPS devices were knocked out, the effect would be $5.1 billion a year.
Those figures include productivity and cost-savings declines and lost investments on GPS equipment that would be either discarded or upgraded, NDP said.
Similarly, Networkfleet Inc., whose GPS tracking software is installed in 120,000 vehicles, said any disruption to GPS signals could immediately compromise vehicle owners’ ability to do business.
The House Transportation Committee held a June 23 hearing to address these concerns.
“Our intent is to ensure that any proposals that move forward do so in a responsible manner that doesn’t jeopardize safe operations or threaten jobs in the transportation industry,” Justin Harclerode, a committee spokesman, said in a statement.
Two lawmakers have introduced an amendment in hopes of getting the FCC to delay approving LightSquared’s network.
“We must ensure that before any final approval is granted, those concerns of possible harmful interference to GPS are completely addressed,” said Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio).
“Given the important role that GPS technology plays in the daily lives of the American public and the impact it has on the American economy, I believe it is imperative that the FCC does not advance any technology that would interfere with GPS,” Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) said.
LightSquared, backed by New York investment firm Harbinger Capital Partners, hopes to roll out its new wireless broadband network in the second half of the year using Long Term Evolution, or LTE, mobile network technology.
LightSquared planned to use spectrum at 1525 to 1559 megahertz. This is close to the 1559 to 1610 MHz frequencies used by GPS, according to a January report from Garmin International Inc., the Olathe, Kan., GPS device maker.
But in tests, LightSquared’s broadband waves overpowered the weaker GPS signals, according to the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, a U.S. government organization that advises and coordinates federal departments and agencies on matters concerning GPS, which is a utility owned and maintained by the federal government.
Clem Driscoll, principal at C.J. Driscoll & Associates, a consultancy for wireless and GPS companies, said he believes LightSquared’s plan will still affect GPS systems.
“It seems to me that LightSquared’s frequency has to be moved far enough away from GPS so that there will be no potential impact on GPS signal reception,” Driscoll said.
Despite the controversy, LightSquared continues to attract new customers. On June 28, the Reston, Va., company said it signed a contract with netTalk.com Inc., a Voice over Internet Protocol (better known as VoIP) service provider based in Miami.
Earlier in June, LightSquared reached an accord worth up to $20 billion with Sprint Nextel Corp. to share network expansion costs and equipment and to provide high-speed wireless service to the phone carrier, Bloomberg News reported.
