FCC Aims for ‘Purely Technical’ Decision on LightSquared
The FCC’s decision won’t be political on whether LightSquared poses an interference threat to GPS systems, Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a news conference after Tuesday’s open meeting. The agency is looking for an answer that will let both GPS and LightSquared thrive, and isn’t taking sides, agency officials said later at a briefing for reporters. The commission hasn’t decided whether more testing will be needed, and it isn’t setting a deadline to make a decision, the officials said. “There’s no timetable” for making a decision “other than we're trying to work as quickly as we can,” said Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan. At the officials’ briefing, held at FCC headquarters, the staffers spoke on the condition they not be identified by name and only would have agreed-upon comments attributed to them.
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Genachowski categorized the interference issue as an engineering problem and not a political one. “My focus is on making sure that the process is fact-based, engineering-based,” he said. “Everyone involved in the process wants to make sure that GPS is not interfered with. We all use GPS, we all understand its importance.” The agency is “just as committed to protecting GPS as anybody else,” Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julie Knapp said at the briefing. “We've got huge stakes in this one.” The commission is “not going to jeopardize air safety,” or national security, Kaplan said. “There’s no tolerance for that here.” While the FCC would like to see the spectrum used for broadband, as proposed in the National Broadband Plan, the final decision will be “purely technical,” Kaplan said. “At this point, it’s in the hands of the engineers.”
The FCC is waiting for reply comments and then will assess next steps, Knapp said. It’s an “open question” whether there will be another round of testing,” he said. Initial testing focused on LightSquared’ original plans, “but there was some testing done on the lower 10 [MHz],” he said. “We're in the process of working through, if initial additional tests are needed, where are the holes? What information do we need to identify?” The commission is “trying to move this process quickly, and at the same time, whatever amount of time it’s going to take to get to the right answer, that’s what we'll do,” Knapp said.
The FCC didn’t address the GPS-interference issue earlier, in its March 2010 orders approving the network, in part because the concerns were not raised in comments, agency officials said. The FCC doesn’t regulate receivers, which were the source of the GPS interference, they said. Responding to concerns about FCC transparency on this proceeding, Kaplan said he “can’t imagine a more transparent process, where there’s open comment,” and decisions won’t happen behind closed doors.
LightSquared meanwhile urged the FCC to ignore a letter by a NASA advisory board that said the the company’s network would harm GPS. LightSquared said the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board misrepresented itself. The board’s positions are not the same as “actual policy adopted by an agency of the Federal government,” LightSquared said in a Monday filing. The board mischaracterized the FCC’s January 2011 order and takes inaccurate positions spread by the GPS industry, LightSquared said.
Capitol Hill interest in the LightSquared matter remains high, and two hearings are expected after Congress returns from recess. The House Science Committee and the Armed Services Committee each had hearings about LightSquared scheduled for the first week of August, but they were postponed when Congress took an early recess. New dates have not yet been announced.