The following statement can be attributed to Jim Kirkland, Vice President and General Counsel of Trimble, a founding member of the Coalition to Save Our GPS:
“This latest filing yet again proceeds from the same false premises and claims that LightSquared has repeated ad nauseam in its ongoing effort to deny its obligation to avoid harmful interference to millions of government and private GPS users. Until January 2011, LightSquared was not authorized to provide nationwide, ubiquitous, high-powered, terrestrial-only services in its licensed mobile satellite spectrum. The FCC reaffirmed as recently as March 2010 that LightSquared was only authorized to provide limited terrestrial services to fill in the gaps in its satellite coverage. LightSquared’s filing completely ignores the clear regulatory record on this point, and its suggestion that GPS manufacturers should have designed receivers to accommodate a prohibited use is simply self-serving nonsense. In its January 2011 order, the FCC’s International Bureau made clear that LightSquared would not be permitted to commence operations until it had demonstrated that it would not interfere with GPS. LightSquared did not challenge this condition at the time, and has to live up to it. There is overwhelming technical evidence—including the most recent government test results—that this condition has not been satisfied. LightSquared’s continuing efforts to move the goal posts are too little, too late.”