The convenience and accuracy of handheld GPS units like Garmin and Tom-Tom, as well as the GPS capabilities in smartphones may be a thing of the past if a company called LightSquared gets its way, said the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and the National Society of Professional Surveyors, the national associations for geospatial professionals.
Earlier this year, LightSquared, a Reston, VA satellite-terrestrial broadband network company, was granted a temporary waiver by the FCC to deploy 40,000 ground stations as part of their wireless 4G broadband network —- there is only one problem, the LightSquared 4G broadband network will wipe out nationwide GPS; and LightSquared knows it!
John Matonich, Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the National Society of Professional Surveyors emphasizes, “The use of GPS by a large segment of the American public has become commonplace. From GPS in cars and phones to public safety vehicles and commerce, this tool is essential to our well being and will be rendered essentially useless if the system as proposed by LightSquared is granted a final permit by the FCC.”
ACSM and NSPS have been in the forefront in the fight to save nationwide GPS, not only for their members — professional land surveyors and cartographers — but for the general public as well. LightSquared’s success will lead to GPS failure for everyone from geospatial professionals, to first responders, to airline pilots, to the mom driving her kids to soccer practice.
About ACSM and NSPS:
The American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) was founded in June 1941 and is incorporated as a non-profit educational organization whose goal is to advance the sciences of surveying and mapping and related fields, in furtherance of the welfare of those who use and make maps. ACSM also encourages the development of educational programs and supports publications that represent the professional and technical interests of surveying and mapping. The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) strives to establish and further common interests, objectives, and political effort that would help bind the surveying profession into a unified body in the United States.