Commerce Committees Keeping Tabs on LightSquared Behind the Scenes
The House and Senate Commerce Committees are working largely behind the scenes on the LightSquared matter rather than in a public forum, despite the increasingly political nature, including claims of undue political influence. The approach likely reflects a willingness to let the FCC, in its role as the expert agency, sort out the spectrum interference issue, said observers. Other committees, including the House Science Committee and House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, haven’t been reluctant to criticize the FCC for its handling of the issue.
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The House Communications Subcommittee had a bipartisan briefing on LightSquared with FCC staff on Monday, committee aides said. The staff was to talk about “the status of LightSquared’s license, ongoing testing of any potential impact on GPS, and the Commission’s process going forward,” said a committee memo we obtained. The House Commerce Committee said last week (CD Sept 19 p11) that it hasn’t scheduled a hearing but is closely monitoring the LightSquared issue. Meanwhile, several committee members have raised concerns in letters to the FCC and others. They include House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Reps. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Eshoo urged NTIA to find an answer so LightSquared and GPS can continue. “LightSquared’s proposal to build a nationwide terrestrial-based wireless broadband network offers exciting job opportunities for our nation,” she wrote NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. “It is well worth the effort to work on interference issues to the nearby GPS band. I have the utmost confidence that a solution can be obtained by both parties that will mitigate any harmful interference.” Eshoo wrote the FCC about the issue in January.
The Senate Commerce Committee has been quiet on the LightSquared issue. While committee leaders have not shown much interest publicly, it certainly is a matter that’s in the committee’s jurisdiction since it deals with spectrum, a Senate aide said. With spectrum getting more crowded, it will be important going forward to figure out ways to minimize disputes between license holders, the aide said.
There are likely several reasons why the Commerce committees have yet to take up the issue in a public forum, officials said. The agencies under a particular committee’s jurisdiction are often treated as the “home team,” said a former House Commerce Committee staffer. There is also a little more deference given to an agency that has experience in dealing with the subject matter, such as spectrum fights in the LightSquared case, said the ex-staffer. Spectrum fights between commercial and military interests aren’t uncommon and the FCC is typically given the space to resolve the situation under its own authority, said the staffer. The committee “understands issues and tensions that come up all the time,” the staffer said.
LightSquared said it would welcome a hearing of either Commerce committee as a “way to have a more balanced discussion of the facts."
Meanwhile, LightSquared announced a new product it said proves that a technical solution to the GPS issue is possible. The receiver, designed by Javad GNSS and previewed by LightSquared last week (CD Sept 15 p7), will eliminate interference problems with high-precision GPS devices, said LightSquared. Interference with high-precision devices has been a continued concern since LightSquared offered to begin service only in the bottom part of the L-band to reduce interference with other GPS receivers. The devices will be submitted for testing along with the additional testing that NTIA and the FCC have said is necessary before LightSquared can begin service, Executive Vice President Martin Harriman told reporters.
The new device doesn’t resolve the question of how to handle embedded receivers, but it does show a technical fix is possible, said Harriman. LightSquared will work toward finding a fix to retrofit the embedded base of precision GPS receivers, though he said it’s unlikely there will be a retrofittable solution for all of the devices. Harriman declined to comment on the cost of the receivers.
The Coalition to Save Our GPS remained skeptical. “LightSquared has, as usual, oversimplified and greatly overstated the significance of the claims of a single vendor to have ’solved’ the interference issue,” the coalition said. “There have been many vendor claims that have not proven out in rigorous tests and the demanding tests of marketplace acceptance. Moreover, this is not a one-size-fits-all situation and a few prototypes does not a solution make. The estimated 750,000 to 1 million high-precision GPS receivers now in use in the United States vary widely: there are hundreds of different high-precision devices used in performing thousands of different tasks. High-precision GPS supports a wide variety of uses, including agriculture, construction, aviation, surveying and many scientific and safety-of-life applications. LightSquared also ignores the fact that availability of new products, even if confirmed, does not address this very large existing base of equipment. If and when solutions are available, LightSquared must accept responsibility for paying to replace the existing base of existing equipment with new products.”