LightSquared is fighting for the life of its network after a recent report suggests its LTE network will interfere with GPS devices. The company countered this report with accusations that the testing was not only flawed, but rigged to fail. The scathing accusations were made Wednesday at a press conference.
LightSquared claims the Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) and GPS industry insiders manipulated the research to produce negative results. The company says the GPS companies conducted the tests in secrecy and used NDA agreements to hide the research information. Independent third-party companies could not evaluate the methods or results to make sure they were scientifically sound. LightSquared also alleges the tests were conducted using obsolete and niche devices that were chosen because they would fail. The only mass market device tested supposedly passed with flying colors. The company also claims the failure level of 1db of interference is a laboratory standard. In the real world, a one dB change won’t affect device performance.
As expected, some GPS manufacturers and activist groups are not happy about these accusations. The Save Our GPS group issued the following statement denying the LightSquared allegations:
“At each and every turn in this process, whenever LightSquared does not like a test result or ruling, it either seeks to change the parameters or cries foul – and frequently both. Today’s LightSquared statement is more of the same. A year ago, the FCC’s International Bureau provided a conditional waiver to LightSquared, and that condition was a categorical requirement that it prove its plans would not interfere with GPS. LightSquared assured one and all that its plans would not cause interference with GPS. But test after test has shown that LightSquared’s ill-conceived plans do in fact cause widespread interference with GPS.
LightSquared does not like the test results, so it is attacking the testers. Last Friday’s report reflects the unanimous view of nine different federal government departments and agencies that LightSquared’s proposals would interfere with critical functions, including the Department of Defense, the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security. The technical evidence speaks for itself and no individual, company or government body can legitimately be blamed for the clear defects of LightSquared’s ill-conceived proposal or the failure of that proposal to pass an extensive, fact-based review process.”
At this point, LightSquared is asking the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to re-evaluate these tests and redo them with an independent laboratory. It’s do or die time for LightSquared and this may be it’s last straw. If the company can’t over come this GPS interference issue, it won’t be allowed to enter the LTE mobile broadband market with its current technology. Such an outcome could be the death knell for its future as a 4G mobile broadband provider and a serious stumbling block for Sprint’s 4G network.
[Via LightSquared and GigaOM; image Shutterstock]