A Federal Communications Commission proposal that would effectively halt the launch of a new nationwide wireless network by LightSquared appears to open the door to a new and potentially disruptive debate on the need to develop receivers designed to coexist with new wireless networks.
Recent tests showed that LightSquared’s network would overpower GPS transmissions, prompting the FCC to reverse its prior approval and now block the plan.
The reversal comes as a blow to LightSquared but could be good news for others, including DISH Network, which is seeking to develop a similar wholesale wireless network. DISH Network uses spectrum that would not likely interfere with that used for GPS, as LightSquared’s network would, according to a National Journal report.
Jeffrey Silva, an analyst with Medley Global Advisers, described the FCC decision as “profoundly ironic on several levels, clearing the way FCC action on a Dish wireless proposal nearly identical to LightSquared’s with the exception of the GPS-interference problem … and likely giving rise to a commission reexamination of a receiver standard issue championed by LightSquared,” according to the National Journal report.
The FCC is now calling for Congress and other agencies to develop new policies on receiver performance but also opening up a new Pandora’s box on how to use spectrum more efficiently.
LightSquared has become a lightening rod for the Administration and its effort to expand national broadband and wireless capabilities.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has defended his original support for LightSquared, saying the process LightSquared used worked the way it was supposed to.
The Defense Department and other wholesale users of GPS technology have opposed LightSquared’s plans to launch a new wireless service that would operate on slices of spectrum that are adjacent to those carrying GPS signals, and as tests have now shown, interfere with those signals.
LightSquared has countered that the interference is more the result of GPS operators not staying strictly within their assigned spectrum lanes.
The FCC is now being forced to address the conflict between spectrum license holders and manufacturers of the receivers at a time when more and more mobile consumers and businesses are clamoring for wireless services.
For the full story on the FCC decision, see the National Journal report, which appeared on NextGov.