The science and facts support the FCC’s unanimous, bipartisan decision to grant Ligado’s spectrum, and if there are DOD GPS receivers operating in our licensed spectrum that need to be upgraded, Ligado is ready to do so.”ĭoD and many other agencies, including the Transportation Department, have opposed the planned Ligado (formerly LightSquared) network for nearly a decade. “If there is an issue DOD is concerned about, the best way to resolve it is for the DOD and Ligado to work through those issues as soon as possible, as the FCC Order requires and as Congress has mandated. No concrete evidence to the contrary has been put forth by any private entity or government agency, including the Defense Department, despite repeated requests,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “After more than a decade of scientific review, the nation’s spectrum experts at the FCC determined the concessions Ligado made and the conditions in the April 2020 FCC Order protect GPS. Ligado has in the past has routinely batted away the criticisms as over-hyping the potential for interference, and has insisted that it has been making efforts to work with users to mitigate any potential problems. “We have received and reviewing the letter,” an FCC spokesperson replied tersely to Breaking Defense’s request for comment today. Wicker, now the ranking member of that committee, is widely expected to take the chairmanship of the SASC (Inhofe is retiring) if Republicans take control of the Senate following mid-term elections.
Roger Wicker, R-Miss., essentially sided with the FCC’s decision. This is significant, as during the first round of Ligado debate, then Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. (Interestingly, the FY21 NDAA also mandated that DoD provide Congress with list of GPS receivers that would be affected and estimate the costs - a report that, if completed, hasn’t been released to the public.Īlso signing on the recent letter where three members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the committee that actually has jurisdiction over the FCC: Sens.
“We remain extremely concerned that terrestrial L-band operations would cause unacceptable risk to Department of Defense (DOD), the Federal Government Global Positioning System (GPS), and Satellite Communications (SATCOM) operations,” the senators said.Īccording to the National Academies website the review “will consider how best to evaluate harmful interference to civilian and defense users of GPS, the potential for harmful interference to GPS users and DOD activities, and the effectiveness and feasibility of the mitigation measures proposed in the FCC order.” The results of that review are scheduled to be released on Sept. In a letter issued Wednesday to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the senators urge the FCC “to stay and reconsider” its earlier decision. The renewed push comes just over a month before Ligado expects to launch its network, and just a few weeks before the due date for a Congressionally-mandated report on whether the company’s system will indeed impact GPS for both military and commercial users.
WASHINGTON - A group of eight senators has relaunched the long-simmering battle to overturn a 2020 decision by the Federal Communications Commission that granted spectrum rights to wireless firm Ligado - rights the Defense Department and other government organizations say would imperil the use of GPS.
Telecommunication tower with mesh dots, glittering particles for wireless telecommunication technology (Getty images)
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