October 28, 2011
Several outlets reported on a conference call for reporters held yesterday by the Coalition to Save Our GPS, and on a corresponding statement from the Coalition.
Communications Daily reported that according to the Coalition, LightSquared does not have a legal right to a national terrestrial network in the L-band, regardless of the company’s claims and references to FCC decisions. Trimble’s Jim Kirkland also explained on the call that references from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about terrestrial use of the L-band don’t reflect agency approval for what LightSquared is trying to do because while it is fair to say the FCC considered terrestrial use of the L-band, it only did for very small chunks and not in the way LightSquared is envisioning.
· Connected Planet reported that the Coalition “opened up a new front of its war of words with LightSquared,” claiming that LightSquared should have paid billions of dollars for its spectrum, thus jilting taxpayers out of billions of dollars if allowed to proceed.
· TR Daily reported that the Coalition accused LightSquared of benefitting from a $10 billion “windfall” if allowed to proceed; criticized LightSquared’s offer of a mere $50 million toward equipment replacement and retrofitting costs; and took issue with the company’s inaccurate portrayal of the history of the proceeding.
o "What LightSquared is really trying to do here is rewrite history so that it receives a massive increase in the value of its spectrum over what it paid for it and shift the costs of eliminating interference to GPS users, including federal, state and local governments, and GPS manufacturers," the coalition said.
· IDG News reported that the Coalition challenged LightSquared’s claims that the FCC will be able to resolve the controversy over GPS interference caused by LightSquared’s network by the end of the year. The article also notes that the Coalition downplayed LightSquared’s claims of technical solutions to the problem, calling them “prospective only” and likely more difficult and expensive to implement than LightSquared has suggested.
· Politico reported that the GPS community is “trying to hit LightSquared where it hurts” by accusing it of wasting taxpayer dollars. The article noted that the Coalition is working to get language in appropriations bills that will prohibit LightSquared from moving forward if interference is still an issue.
· National Journal reported that the “sometimes vitriolic nature of the newly political debate over LightSquared’s proposed wholesale wireless network has added ‘tension’ to its relationship with the GPS community.”
· The Hill reported that the Coalition accused LightSquared of cheating taxpayers out of billions of dollars.
· The Washington Post noted that LightSquared and the GPS industry traded barbs yesterday with the latter challenging LightSquared’s claims that it has a legal right to build its network and accusing the company of cheating taxpayers out of billions of dollars. The Post noted that LightSquared responded, saying the GPS industry has avoided solving interference problems for years.
LightSquared issued a statement by its vice president for regulatory affairs after the call touting the technical “solutions” LightSquared claims have been developed; accusing the GPS industry of politicizing a complex technical matter; and suggesting questions LightSquared believes the GPS industry should answer.
Aviation Week reported that additional government testing of GPS receivers for interference from LightSquared’s broadband-wireless network under a revised deployment plan is getting under way at Holloman AFB, N.M.
LightSquared issued a press release yesterday announcing a collaboration with PCTEL, a global leader in the design and development of innovative antenna solutions, to resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers. The Kansas City Business Journal reported on the announcement, noting that many in the aviation, agricultural and GPS industries “loudly oppose” the network because of GPS interference.
Politico reports that LightSquared accused GPS manufacturer Trimble of lobbying against the broadband company out of narrow financial interest, pointing to sales of Trimble stock by its board members following the FCC’s conditional waiver to LightSquared.
In a separate story, Politico reports that “despite his financial stake” in Trimble, Bradford Parkinson will not step down as an advisor to the government on LightSquared’s plans. Relevant quotes by Parkinson and LightSquared’s Terry Neal follow:
· Parkinson: “This issue is way too important for me to back off”…“My objective is to protect the [GPS] users and I have a 39-year track record of doing exactly that”… “The GPS community is willing to adjust, but not with a gun at their head where you are allowed to pull the trigger tomorrow.”
· Neal: “Not only did Dr. Parkinson attend the most important PNT Advisory Board meeting on the LightSquared matter in June, he gave a LightSquared representative a very public grilling”…As a board member of Trimble, Parkinson has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the shareholders of the company, and “cannot possibly be considered an objective source of information.” If Parkinson “was serious about being independent, he would resign from one of his two positions,” Neal added.
A cite list and links to the full text of these and other articles follow.
1. COMMUNICATIONS DAILY, SECTION: SATELLITE, October 28, 2011 Friday, LENGTH: 276 words
2. Kansas City Business Journal (Kansas & Missouri), LightSquared finds partner to help solve GPS interference, October 27, 2011 Thursday, LENGTH: 240 words
3. Connected Planet, LightSquared is jilting taxpayers out of billions, GPS industry claims, By Kevin Fitchard, 916 words, 27 October 2011
4. PR Newswire, Statement by Jeff Carlisle, Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy at LightSquared, October 27, 2011 Thursday 4:16 PM EST, LENGTH: 1119 words
5. TR Daily, GPS COALITION CITES LightSquared `WINDFALL’; LightSquared ANNOUNCES PRECISION DEVICE ANTENNA, Paul Kirby, 1086 words, 27 October 2011
6. PR Newswire, LightSquared and PCTEL Protect High Precision GPS Applications; LightSquared and PCTEL Collaboration Solves High Precision GPS Interference, October 27, 2011 Thursday 8:30 AM EST, LENGTH: 974 words
7. IDG News, GPS Group Counters LightSquared Claims, B
y Stephen Lawson, 10/27/2011
8. Politico, GPS: LightSquared’s wasting taxpayer cash, By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 8:51 AM EDT
9. Aviation Week, Crucial LightSquared Tests Begin In New Mexico, By Graham Warwick, 10/28/2011
10. National Journal, GPS Group Says LightSquared Misrepresents Interference Issue, By Josh Smith, October 27, 2011, 4:29 PM
11. Broadcasting and Cable, LightSquared Says It Has Yet Another GPS Antenna Fix; Collaborating with PCTEL on an antenna that can provide "an efficient and elegant solution", By John Eggerton, 10/27/2011 10:20:42 AM
12. The Hill, OVERNIGHT TECH: FCC moves forward with USF reform, By Gautham Nagesh – 10/27/11 06:55 PM ET
13. The Washington Post, The Circuit: FCC approves USF reform, HP keeps PC unit, Samsung overtakes Apple, By Hayley Tsukayama, Posted at 08:35 AM ET, 10/28/2011
14. Politico, LightSquared: Sales show GPS execs’ motives, Trimble is accused of lobbying against LightSquared out of narrow financial interest. | By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 8:47 AM EDT
15. Politico, Adviser on LightSquared stays despite allegations, By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 9:08 AM EDT
***Excerpts/Links to Full Text of Articles***
COMMUNICATIONS DAILY, SECTION: SATELLITE, October 28, 2011 Friday, LENGTH: 276 words
LightSquared doesn’t have the legal right to a national terrestrial network in the L-band, despite its claims and references to FCC decisions, said Jim Kirkland, positioning technology vendor Trimble’s general counsel and a leader in the Save Our GPS Coalition. Kirkland spoke Thursday about the regulatory history of LightSquared’s authorizations.
Kansas City Business Journal (Kansas & Missouri), LightSquared finds partner to help solve GPS interference, October 27, 2011 Thursday, LENGTH: 240 words
LightSquared Inc. has partnered with an antenna development company to help solve its controversial interference issues with certain GPS signals.
The Reston, Va., wholesale wireless carrier is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a wholesale-only national wireless broadband network using fourth-generation Long Term Evolution technology.
But many in the aviation, agricultural and GPS industries, including Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), loudly oppose the network because it clashes with GPS equipment in airplanes and other devices, prompting public safety concerns. Garmin has its operational headquarters in Olathe.
LightSquared announced Thursday that PCTEL Inc. (Nasdaq: PCTI) of Bloomingdale, Ill., had developed an antenna with which GPS users can retrofit their devices to make them compatible with the LightSquared network, potentially eliminating the interference.
LightSquared said the antenna would face independent tests in a New Jersey laboratory.
To read more click here.
Connected Planet, LightSquared is jilting taxpayers out of billions, GPS industry claims, By Kevin Fitchard, 916 words, 27 October 2011
The Coalition to Save our GPS has opened up a new front of its war of words with LightSquared. It’s now claiming that if LightSquared really had permission to build a terrestrial mobile broadband network than it should have paid billions of dollars for that right at auction, just like any other U.S. wireless operator.
The Coalition is claiming that LightSquared is trying to pull a regulatory slight-of-hand to gain a windfall in mobile broadband frequencies outside of the normal auction channels. By turning L-band spectrum formerly designated only for satellite transmission into terrestrial mobile spectrum, LightSquared is effectively increasing the value of its licenses by $10 billion, the Coalition said in a statement.
Normally any designation of spectrum for mobile broadband would require a competitive auction among operators, raising billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury. If LightSquared receives permission to build its terrestrial network, the Coalition said, it would circumvent that process, jilting taxpayers out of gobs of revenue during in financial troubled times and giving it an unfair advantage against traditional wireless operators.
LightSquared claims it’s had permission to build terrestrial networks in the L-band since 2003, when the FCC granted it an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) waiver. That right was further reinforced in January when the FCC granted it an additional to waiver to separate out satellite service from terrestrial service, allowing it to offer a mobile broadband service only from its ground-based networks. In that sense the Coalition is correct: with the stroke of a pen the FCC essentially turned satellite spectrum of limited value into mobile broadband spectrum of enormous value.
The second waiver, however, was conditional. In order to build that terrestrial network, LightSquared had to prove it could run a ground-based LTE network without interfering with GPS receivers that depend on nearby Global Position System and GPS augmentation bands (CP: LightSquared gets its waiver—with a caveat). The extent of that interference, whether it can mitigated and ultimately who’s responsible for it, have been at the crux of the very public argument LightSquared and the GPS industry have fought for the last year (CP: Sorting out the LightSquared GPS interference mess).
To read more click here.
PR Newswire, Statement by Jeff Carlisle, Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy at LightSquared, October 27, 2011 Thursday 4:16 PM EST, LENGTH: 1119 words
The GPS industry has been saying for months that there is no solution to interference caused by GPS devices that "look in" to neighboring spectrum licensed to LightSquared. Nonetheless, in a matter of weeks three private sector companies have now announced inexpensive solutions that eliminate interference for the high precision devices in question. In fact, we announced another collaboration today with global device maker PCTEL which has developed an antenna that will allow existing high precision users to retrofit their GPS devices to make them compatible with LightSquared’s network.
The GPS industry, led by Trimble — a $5 billion company, with a direct financial stake in the outcome of this debate — continues in desperation to politicize a complex technical matter where several engineering solutions have been developed. Today, those opposed to expanding wireless access for millions distributed alarming numbers based on an outdated plan to deliberately confuse reporters with scare tactics (note the number of caveats in their statement).
Our current proposal to move our spectrum further away from GPS’s spectrum will cost LightSquared $100 million and solves the interference problem for mass consumer and industrial GPS devices. Additionally, the solutions currently under development are expected to get us to complete compatibility. LightSquared has also committed $50 million toward replacing/retrofitting government devices that experience interference. The interference issues were caused by the GPS industry not filtering their devices appropriately, and we call on them to fund their share of the solution for the remaining high precision devices through a standard recall.
The To
p 5 Questions the GPS Industry Should Answer:
1) Isn’t it true that the so-called "non-biased" PNT Advisory Board, which advises the Pentagon, is represented by board members of GPS companies who have a financial stake in LightSquared not getting approval to proceed?
To read more click here.
TR Daily, GPS COALITION CITES LightSquared `WINDFALL’; LightSquared ANNOUNCES PRECISION DEVICE ANTENNA, Paul Kirby, 1086 words, 27 October 2011
As Congress looks for ways to reduce the budget deficit, the Coalition to Save Our GPS today accused LightSquared, Inc., of benefitting from a $10 billion "windfall" if it is permitted to use its L-band spectrum for terrestrial-only services.
The coalition also said that even if technical solutions that LightSquared has announced effectively protect high-precision Global Positioning System devices from interference – something that it said has yet to be proven in testing – it complained that LightSquared has only offered to pay $50 million of what could be billions of dollars in equipment replacement and retrofitting costs.
Also today, LightSquared and PCTEL, Inc., announced the development of an antenna that they said can be installed into legacy high-precision receivers so they are compatible with LightSquared’s L-band network.
In a news release and a conference call with reporters, the Coalition to Save Our GPS cited a study conducted for LightSquared by The Brattle Group, Inc., and released in June and said that the value of LightSquared’s spectrum would be worth $12 billion if the company is allowed to deploy unlimited terrestrial services, rather than $2 billion if it is limited to satellite offerings.
"It’s using legal double speak to hide a $10 billion spectrum windfall – money that should be going to U.S. taxpayers," the coalition said. "And, it’s offering up just a pittance towards the billions it would cost federal, state and local governments, as well as consumers, if its plans are allowed to go forward."
PR Newswire, LightSquared and PCTEL Protect High Precision GPS Applications; LightSquared and PCTEL Collaboration Solves High Precision GPS Interference, October 27, 2011 Thursday 8:30 AM EST, LENGTH: 974 words
LightSquared, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and drive industry innovation, has collaborated with PCTEL (NASDAQ: PCTI), a global leader in the design and development of innovative antenna solutions, to resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers.
PCTEL has developed an antenna that will allow existing high precision users to retrofit their GPS devices to make them compatible with LightSquared’s network. This antenna provides high precision GPS users with another in a series of solutions to make their equipment LightSquared-compatible.
"PCTEL has developed GPS antenna solutions that have solved a variety of interference issues that others said were unsolvable. Their wideband antenna provides an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users," said Martin Harriman, executive vice president of ecosystem development and satellite business at LightSquared.
PCTEL’s antenna solutions address applications including public safety, agriculture, construction and aviation. The new antenna will be independently tested with a range of receivers at the world-renowned Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ.
To read more click here.
IDG News, GPS Group Counters LightSquared Claims, By Stephen Lawson, 10/27/2011
The Coalition to Save Our GPS challenged LightSquared’s forecasts that the FCC will be able to resolve the controversy over the company’s planned cellular network by the end of this year, using a conference call with reporters on Thursday to slam the startup’s business plan and technical claims.
The next round of testing on LightSquared’s proposed LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network will start next week at an Air Force base, said Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble Navigation, who spoke for the Coalition to Save Our GPS on the call. Those tests are scheduled to be finished by Nov. 30, but further testing is likely to be needed, Kirkland said. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission wants the interference issue resolved before it will approve LightSquared’s network.
Timing is important for LightSquared, which has promised to make its network reach 100 million U.S. residents by the end of 2012. LightSquared officials were not immediately available to respond to Kirkland’s comments.
To read more click here.
Politico, GPS: LightSquared’s wasting taxpayer cash, By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 8:51 AM EDT
With deficit reduction talk sucking up most of the oxygen in Washington, the GPS community is trying to hit LightSquared where it hurts by accusing the broadband company of wasting precious taxpayer dollars.
LightSquared is trying to “rewrite history so that it receives a massive increase in the value of its spectrum over what it paid for it and shift the costs of eliminating interference to GPS users” and the government, the Save Our GPS coalition said in a press release.
The broadband company stands to make a $10 billion windfall, the coalition says
“The idea that a New York hedge fund is going to profit at the expense of the taxpayer is just unacceptable,” Jim Kirkland, general counsel to Trimble, a GPS manufacturer, said during a conference call with reporters on Thursday. He was referring to hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, the principal financial backer of LightSquared.
Kirkland accused LightSquared of misrepresenting the authority the FCC has granted regarding its intention to build a terrestrial wireless network. The company’s plans, he said, would boost the value of its airwaves but leave taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in technical fixes to GPS devices.
To read more click here.
Aviation Week, Crucial LightSquared Tests Begin In New Mexico, By Graham Warwick, 10/28/2011
Additional government testing of GPS receivers for interference from LightSquared’s broadband-wireless network under a revised deployment plan is getting under way at Holloman AFB, N.M.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the additional work after tests confirmed there would be severe GPS interference from the original deployment plan, but indicated the problem would be reduced significantly if LightSquared used only the lower of its two frequency bands, the one farthest from the GPS satellite signal.
The new tests, being conducted in an anechoic chamber at Holloman, are intended to determine whether widely used navigation and cell phone GPS receivers are still susceptible to overload interference from LightSquared’s revised lower-power, lower-frequency terrestrial transmitters.
The FAA has issued a notice to airmen warning of GPS tests being staged between Oct. 24 and Nov. 18 near Alamogo
rdo, N.M. The agency says GPS signals “may be unreliable or unavailable” within a radius of 349 nm at Flight Level 400, decreasing to 185 nm at 50 ft. above ground level.
Testing is to be completed by Nov. 30 and is critical to LightSquared’s business plans as the FCC has said it will not approve commercial deployment of the company’s terrestrial network until GPS interference issues have been resolved.
To read more click here.
National Journal, GPS Group Says LightSquared Misrepresents Interference Issue, By Josh Smith, October 27, 2011, 4:29 PM
The sometimes vitriolic nature of the newly political debate over LightSquared’s proposed wholesale wireless network has added "tension" to its relationship with the GPS community, Jim Kirkland, vice president at global positioning systems manufacturer Trimble, said on Thursday.
"We try to keep a stiff upper lip when we read what LightSquared says in the press," Trimble told reporters. LightSquared "repeatedly misstates and rewrites history" to win approval for its proposed wireless network, Trimble added in a conference call held by the Coalition to Save Our GPS.
The group, made up of many GPS users and manufacturers, sought to rebut arguments by LightSquared that it has the licenses and permission it needs to build a nationwide, wholesale wireless network.
"LightSquared has time and again repeated its self-serving claim that it has been authorized for years to build its recently proposed nationwide terrestrial network, and that this alleged prior authorization shifts the burden of avoiding interference to GPS manufacturers and users," the group said in a statement. "LightSquared’s assertion is flat out wrong."
The GPS coalition contends that the company’s plans have only recently expanded to such an extent that they would seriously disrupt GPS. LightSquared and the Federal Communications Commission say the plans for a full-sized, nationwide land-based network have been known for years.
To read more click here.
Broadcasting and Cable, LightSquared Says It Has Yet Another GPS Antenna Fix; Collaborating with PCTEL on an antenna that can provide "an efficient and elegant solution", By John Eggerton, 10/27/2011 10:20:42 AM
LightSquared says it has found another antenna maker who can retrofit GPS devices to resolve the interference issue that has become a flashpoint for a national, wholesale 4G wireless network LightSquared proposes to build with billions in investment and an FCC waiver.
The company announced Thursday that it is collaborating with PCTEL on an antenna that can provide "an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users." It is the subset of high-precision GPS devices whose sensitivity to in-band LIghtSquared transmissions has been the key issue holding up the service. LightSquared earlier this month announced that another company, Javad GNSS, had designed a retrofit antenna that could help resolve the interference issue.
To read more click here.
The Hill, OVERNIGHT TECH: FCC moves forward with USF reform, By Gautham Nagesh – 10/27/11 06:55 PM ET
GPS industry says LightSquared is cheating taxpayers out of billions: The Coalition to Save Our GPS accused wireless company LightSquared of cheating taxpayers out of billions of dollars on a conference call with reporters Thursday. LightSquared plans to launch a wholesale wireless broadband service, but tests earlier this year revealed its network interferences with GPS devices. The company is currently undergoing testing to determine if a series of technical fixes can solved the interference problem.
James Kirkland, general counsel for GPS-maker Trimble, said on the call that by operating land-based cell towers on spectrum that was originally designated for satellite signals, LightSquared is effectively increasing the value of its spectrum by $10 billion.
"We think a $10 billion windfall for a New York venture firm is unacceptable," Kirkland said, referring to Harbinger Capital, which is the primary investor in LightSquared.
LightSquared argues that the interference problem is a result of GPS receivers "looking into" LightSquared’s spectrum and that the GPS industry should have been preparing for years for the launch of a land-based network in the adjacent band.
To read more click here.
The Washington Post, The Circuit: FCC approves USF reform, HP keeps PC unit, Samsung overtakes Apple, By Hayley Tsukayama, Posted at 08:35 AM ET, 10/28/2011
GPS industry, LightSquared trade barbs: In a release Thursday, the Coalition to Save Our GPS challenged claims made by LightSquared that it has been granted a legal right to build out its nationwide terrestrial broadband network in the satellite band. The group has accused LightSquared of cheating taxpayers out of billions of dollars in order to gain an increase in the value of its spectrum.
In his own Thursday statement, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, Jeff Carlisle, said that the GPS industry has avoided solving interference problems with neighboring spectrum for years.
To read more click here.
Politico, LightSquared: Sales show GPS execs’ motives, Trimble is accused of lobbying against LightSquared out of narrow financial interest. | By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 8:47 AM EDT
LightSquared on Thursday accused GPS manufacturer Trimble of lobbying against the broadband company out of narrow financial interest.
Weeks after the FCC granted its controversial waiver to LightSquared in January, Trimble board members sold nearly $20 million of stock, according to SEC filings compiled by LightSquared.
The waiver granted more flexibility for how retailers can use spectrum purchased from LightSquared, a critical element of the company’s business plan. The GPS community said it fundamentally changed the nature of the network LightSquared planned to build, introducing GPS interference problems.
But LightSquared denies that, arguing that its network plans remained the same before and after the waiver.
The February stock sales comprise “three times the highest amount of stock board members and top managers had unloaded in any one month going back to 2007,” Jeff Carlisle, head of regulatory affairs for the broadband company, said in a release. “This demonstrates that Trimble insiders clearly viewed LightSquared as a financial threat to its commercial business.”
To read more click here.
Politico, Adviser on LightSquared stays despite allegations, By ELIZA KRIGMAN | 10/28/11 9:08
AM EDT
Despite his financial stake in a company at the center of a public lobbying campaign against LightSquared, a key adviser to the government on the controversial broadband company’s plans won’t step down.
“This issue is way too important for me to back off,” Bradford Parkinson, a Stanford professor and GPS expert, wrote in an email.
Parkinson, the vice chairman of a federal advisory board the government relies on to understand GPS matters, has been accused of putting his financial interests above his scientific analysis.
The reason: Parkinson also has a multimillion dollar financial stake in Trimble, a GPS manufacturing company at the heart of a campaign aiming to derail LightSquared from entering the market.
In a recent story, POLITICO described the issue surrounding Parkinson’s advisory role on LightSquared and his ties to Trimble.
To read more click here.