Reston, Va., November 9, 2011 – LightSquared’s executive vice president, Martin Harriman, presented the company’s vision for building the nation’s first coast-to-coast wireless broadband network today to the PNT Advisory Board at their second annual meeting.
Harriman detailed the company’s extensive efforts to solve interference issues related to faulty GPS devices reading into spectrum licensed to LightSquared. Among the mitigation efforts taken by LightSquared has been a revised deployment plan to move the portion of spectrum it uses as far as possible from frequencies assigned to GPS. LightSquared has also agreed to lower its power levels and take further steps to reduce power levels as measured on the ground. These steps have eliminated the interference issue for general navigation devices which account for more than 99 percent of GPS equipment.
In addition to Harriman, the PNT Advisory Board also heard from Dr. Javad Ashjaee, president and CEO of Javad GNSS, who has developed high precision GPS receivers that are compatible with LightSquared’s network. Ashjaee showed the panel data proving that the high precision interference issue has been resolved and that LightSquared does not present a threat to high precision GPS, which is used by the agriculture, construction and survey industries.
"Todays meeting was a watershed moment for LightSquared for three reasons," said Harriman, Executive Vice President of president Ecosystem Development for LightSquared. "One, Dr. Ashjaee presented irrefutable evidence that the GPS interference issue can be solved and is not — as the GPS industry has led the public to believe, an unsolvable physics problem. Two, Trimble, a leader of the lobbying effort against LightSquared, acknowledged that it believes its own solution for the interference problem is ready to test. And three, the entire debate has turned from whether there is a solution to who pays for it. And that’s a conversation we’re willing to have."
Javad is one of the pioneers of high precision GPS and played a key role at several GPS equipment companies including Trimble, where he served as the chief engineer. Javad GNSS’s current clients include NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Air Force.
Additional background to clarify critical facts ignored by the GPS industry:
• In 2005, the FCC clearly stated that LightSquared transmitters could transmit at 1.6 kW. Based on that determination, all GPS manufacturers were required to protect their users from harmful interference that might occur if they were operating outside of their authorized band and should manufacture equipment that complied with the Part 15 rules of the FCC. This clearly did not happen. GPS customers should demand to know why this did not occur.
• Numerous annual reports and SEC filings from GPS manufacturers going back to 2001 acknowledge material harm to their business due to interference with neighboring spectrum. GPS manufacturers did not prepare their devices with filters despite knowing for ten years there would be interference problems caused by their devices looking into neighboring spectrum.
• In a 2006 filing, Trimble wrote: “Many of our products use other radio frequency bands, together with the GPS signal, to provide enhanced GPS capabilities, such as real-time kinematic precision.”
• As early as 2001, Trimble also wrote: “emissions from mobile satellite services and other equipment operating in adjacent frequency bands… may materially and adversely affect the utility and reliability of our products.”
• SEC documents dating back several years show that GPS makers were aware of the risks associated with using spectrum that was not licensed to them. Although their warnings to investors were buried in their reports to the SEC, they did nothing to mitigate their own risk. In fact, the FCC reminded the GPS industry in April 2011 to be mindful of their spectrum neighbors: “In the case of GPS, we note that extensive terrestrial operations have been anticipated in the L-band for at least 8 years.”
About LightSquared
LightSquared’s mission is to revolutionize the U.S. wireless industry. With the creation of the first-ever, wholesale-only nationwide 4G-LTE network integrated with satellite coverage, LightSquared offers people the speed, value and reliability of universal connectivity, wherever they are in the United States. As a wholesale-only operator, LightSquared will deploy an open 4G wireless broadband network to be used by existing and new service providers to sell their own devices, applications and services – at a competitive cost and without retail competition from LightSquared. The deployment and operation of LightSquared’s network represent more than $14 billion of private investment over the next eight years. For more information about LightSquared, please go to www.LightSquared.com, www.facebook.com/LightSquared and www.twitter.com/LightSquared.
Forward Looking Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements and information regarding LightSquared and its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and certain assumptions of LightSquared’s management and are, therefore, subject to certain risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements expressed herein relate only to information as of the date of this release. LightSquared has no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release, nor is there any assurance that the plans or strategies discussed in this release will not change.