Globalstar, WISPA Continue TLPS Lobbying Efforts
Globalstar and a critic of its broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) proposal, the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA), made their cases in recent days to eighth-floor FCC staff. Globalstar CEO Jay Monroe and General Counsel Barbee Ponder were among company representatives…
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who met with Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Edward Smith to make the case for TLPS permission, the company said in an ex parte filing. And in a conversation with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's staff recapped in an ex parte filing, WISPA said the draft order doesn't tackle its primary concerns about a lack of any guard band between channels 11 and 14, which raises the likelihood of interference to fixed wireless ISPs. WISPA said the draft order apparently gives Globalstar conditional operation authority without the need for testing for adjacent-channel interference. That lets Globalstar initially deploy TLPS "in 'safe' areas (and perhaps even indoor only)" during the conditional license period, and meanwhile undercuts any ability to determine at the end of that period how much wireless ISP customers are affected, the group said. The draft order should be amended to give Globalstar an experimental license that requires it to do cooperative lab and field testing against outdoor devices to gauge channel 11 interference, WISPA said: Or if the FCC approves the draft order, it said, it should be required to vote whether to give full TLPS authority at the end of the one-year conditional term, with that vote based on such testing. If the FCC goes forward without a required testing regimen, WISPA said, it should consider allowing channel 14's licensed and unlicensed portions be available for opportunistic public access. Public Knowledge and New America's Open Technology Institute have been pushing that provision before the FCC (see 1603250042). Some commissioners have voted against the draft order (see 1606030041). The filings were posted Friday in docket 13-213.