
LightSquared vs. GPS

In the last two years, LightSquared has been trying very hard to get approval to deploy LTE on the spectrum licenses it has. Normally, getting approval would be simple. However, LightSquared’s spectrum sits right in the middle of some of the most important radio services in the United States. Because of that, LightSquared is not likely to ever get approval for what it wants to do.

LightSquared has licenses for 1525MHz to 1559MHz for uplink and 1626.5MHz to 1660.5MHz for downlink. That’s 34MHz on each radio link for LTE. That’s enough to deploy a full 20×20 LTE FDD configuration and supplement it with a 10×10 overlay for a capacity boost. This spectrum even covers the entire nation! So what is the problem? The problem is the fact that its MSS (Mobile Satellite Service) band (commonly referred to as the L-band) sits right next to three very important radio services: aviation radio communications, RNSS (Radio Navigation Satellite Service), and NASA space-to-earth research satellite services.

Obviously aviation radio communication services need to be protected. As a governmental and commercial service that and is often augmented by satellites to ensure communication with aircraft when in flight, that system is absolutely critical to keeping our airspace safe.

NASA's Pioneer probeRadio Navigation Satellite Services include GPS, GLONASS, and other satellite-based navigation systems being built by China and Europe. Since the full commercialization for civilian use of GPS in 2000, GPS availability has become extremely important to many people. The same satellites used by civilians for location tracking services are also used by the military, as well.

NASA’s research satellites are used for astronomy and space research. Often times, those satellites are used to communicate with the many probes the United States has sent out into deep space for investigation. As this is a receive-only band, this slot is open for receiving information from probes in deep space to analyze. Like nearly all satellite communications, the signal is often very weak and easily overpowered.

With all three of these services in jeopardy from LightSquared, it’s no wonder that it can’t get approval to deploy. That being said, the only reason LightSquared is in such jeopardy is because it wants to deploy a terrestrial, high-powered LTE network. A satellite-augmented, low-power LTE service might be able to live alongside these services, but I’m not so sure on that either. These services are right next to LightSquared’s licensed spectrum (with aviation also slightly overlapping, too).

So now, the FCC is requesting comments from the public on whether or not it should allow LightSquared to deploy a terrestrial LTE network to be submitted to docket 11-109. My hope is that most people will see sense and tell the FCC that it shouldn’t. It is outright dangerous and could even be life-threatening to deploy LTE on LightSquared’s frequencies.