GOES Supporters Say Ligado Plan Potentially 'Devastating'

Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). AWCIA Monday in RM-11681 said the interference that could come from terrestrial downlinks sharing the same spectrum as signals from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) "would have a devastating impact on our members" and it urged no commercial sharing with the 1675-1680 MHz band. GEO -- made up of numerous nations and organizations that share Earth observation data -- said GOES collects data that would be used by the Global Earth Observation System of Systems being developed that would tie together a number of earth observation systems. GEO also cited the World Radiocommunication Conference decision not to select 1675-1695 MHz for worldwide consideration to support international mobile telecom, saying domestic use of parts of that spectrum in the U.S. "may result in actions in other countries which could further destabilize the consistent access to the data that is critical to public safety, welfare and the economy at large" and opposing commercial sharing in that band. IAEM said it's "puzzled why the 1675-1680 MHz band is now being reconsidered for 'shared use' with a for-profit entity at the risk of public safety." It said the Ligado proposal first needs to be evaluated and tested by an outside third party, not one paid for by Ligado. IAEM said it's "concerned that if the decision is made for this band to be auctioned as 'shared use,' there will be no going back, no way to 'un-share' the spectrum and no accountability when interference does occur." Ligado in a statement said it "believes that technology can enable this spectrum to be shared for next-generation mobile services while protecting the vital mission of NOAA and the delivery of important weather data that public and private institutions use.”