On Dec. 7, LightSquared held
a briefing in which it shared test results conducted by an independent
laboratory that the company said confirms several major high-precision
receivers, including those developed by GPS pioneer, Javad GNSS, are 100
percent compatible with LightSquared's network. The company said these
results show that LightSquared is well on its way to demonstrating that
GPS interference issues have been resolved.
The company said three additional top-tier, high-precision GPS
manufacturers – all members of the Save Our GPS Coalition –
have also developed solutions that have been tested at the lab. Initial testing
by one of those companies, Hemisphere GPS, reportedly has gone very well.
The
Coalition to Save Our GPS issued a response to this briefing. “We look forward
to studying the new test results announced today," said Jim Kirkland, vice
president and general counsel of Trimble, a founding member of the Coalition to
Save Our GPS. "It’s important to keep in mind that these are
LightSquared-sponsored tests separate from the ongoing, independent testing
being conducted under the auspices of the NTIA, and are simply one input into
an overall analysis of the effect of LightSquared’s planned operations on
critical GPS uses. The results of the NTIA-supervised tests of consumer and
general navigation devices are expected to be available in mid-December,
followed by further government-sponsored testing of high-precision GPS
equipment next year. In addition, there are ongoing technical discussions
between LightSquared and the FAA regarding impacts on aviation safety which
remain unresolved. Once all of this testing and analysis has been completed, we
will have a much more complete picture of the impacts of LightSquared’s revised
proposals on GPS. It is obviously extremely premature to claim at this point
that these latest tests demonstrate that LightSquared’s proposed repurposing of
the mobile satellite band for terrestrial operations is ‘compatible’ with
high-precision GPS.
“In fact,
we know that the results announced today do not address proven interference to
hundreds of thousands of existing high-precision GPS receivers in a wide
variety of critical uses. Even if new equipment solutions are fully tested and
verified, these existing high-precision receivers will have to be retrofitted
or replaced. LightSquared still refuses to accept the financial responsibility
for addressing interference to existing devices, and so has not offered a comprehensive
solution in any way, shape, or form. This refusal to accept financial
responsibility is egregious in light of the multi-billion dollar windfall in
increased spectrum value that LightSquared stands to pocket if its plans are
allowed to go forward.
“LightSquared’s suggestion that the only interference issues
relate to high-precision GPS devices is also premature and unsupported.
LightSquared has claimed this before, and the FCC and NTIA disagreed in
September, which is why more testing of consumer GPS devices was ordered. The
results of these tests are the ones expected to be available in mid-December.”
www.saveourgps.org
Coalition Issues Statement Following LightSquared Briefing
December 8, 2011
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