FYSA,
There is a company, Ligado Networks, out there shilling 5G capabilities and expanding into the L-Band next to GPS and DoD operations. They tried this before back in 2011 under the impetus of the Obama misadministration's effort to push broadband to the outback; their name then was LightSquared. Tests were run and it was disastrous. Here's a link to a recent article as they attempt to sneak this in again and the contents of my letter to my representatives.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/04/13/congressmen-demand-answers-on-gps-spectrum/
BLUF – I strongly oppose the FCC’s proposal to approve Ligado Networks, formerly LightSquared, operations in the spectrum of L-Band, near Defense Department and Global Positioning System (GPS) operations. Please demand an answer to how things have changed since 2011 when deployment of this system was shown to have significant incapacitating interference.
GPS touches every aspect of our lives. It goes beyond the most widely known navigation applications such as car navigation and cell phones to hugely important applications such as agriculture, electric power grids, terrestrial and space based communications networks, infrastructure monitoring, emergency responders, banking, aircraft navigation and construction.
LightSquared tried to get this same spectrum allocated in 2011, it was initially tested and showed that a single operating tower would impact GPS operations up to 300 miles away...and they intended to deploy tens of thousands of them. They have now changed their name to Ligado Networks and have cloaked their arguments in the raiment of 5G like it was a holy talisman that would make GPS jamming politically acceptable.
To be able to receive faint space based GPS signals, receivers must be designed to be highly
sensitive. GPS receivers already incorporate filters that reject transmissions in adjacent bands
that are hundreds of millions of times more powerful than the signals that are transmitted within the GPS band. Ligado Networks, is proposing to transmit signals that are billions of times more powerful than GPS satellite signals. During LightSquared’s Las Vegas open air tests, the highest recorded power levels were 800 billion times the power of GPS signals. Filters cannot block out signals that powerful in an immediately adjacent frequency band.
A couple of observations from other industry professionals might be helpful:
Philip Straub, Vice President for Aviation Engineering, Garmin International, Inc.: “GPS‐enabled devices have brought important advances in aviation safety, particularly for the General Aviation market, which comprises more than 80 percent of the active U.S. fleet. GPS is the primary means of navigation for most of the aircraft. Nearly all military aircraft utilize GPS, as do nearly 80 percent of the cargo planes. And most foreign aircraft that enter U.S. airspace are outfitted with GPS. In recognition of the far‐reaching benefits GPS brings to aviation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun implementing the NextGen program, which uses airborne GPS as an enabling technology for a revolutionized Air Traffic Control system.
“It is time to put an end to this dysfunctional testing exercise that has only proven what we have known all along – that operation of LightSquared’s proposed broadband terrestrial network will cause catastrophic harm to the aviation industry and the many other critical sectors that rely on GPS every day. LightSquared’s ‘mitigation’ and ‘solution’ proposals are as impractical as its original plan, and it would be irresponsible to waste any more industry, user, and government time, money, or resources to futilely attempt to find otherwise.”
This statement from 2011 is even more impactful today as the FAA has mandated Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) be installed in all aircraft operating in the National Airspace Systems Controlled Airspace by the end of this year. ADS-B is a solely GPS based capability and is being used for approaches in airports all over the country.
Ken Golden, Director of Global Public Relations at John Deere: “The report affirms John Deere’s position that the LightSquared network, if allowed to proceed, would have a serious impact on our customers and on the agricultural and construction industries in the U.S. The report of the working group demonstrates there is no practical solution to mitigate the interference that would result if the proposal is allowed. It is not acceptable to allow a new network to interfere with these vitally important industries and weaken the strong competitive position of the U.S. in the global economy. Research has shown that losing the use of GPS technology could have a negative impact of $14 billion to $30 billion annually for U.S. farmers.”
Siamak Mirhakimi, General Manager, Caterpillar Electronics & Systems Integration: “The study group report makes it very clear that if this planned use of spectrum is permitted to proceed its harmful interference with high precision GPS would significantly impact the heavy construction and civil engineering industries. These industries, which employ more than a million people in the U.S., have invested billions of dollars in GPS enabled products. Both depend heavily on high precision GPS technology because of the important benefits it provides: increased productivity, improved job site safety, faster project completion times and reduced fuel and rework costs. The test results clearly show substantial interference to high precision GPS which in turn will impact our products and customers. Allowing any company to cause interference to the GPS band would be a major step backward, and should be blocked.”
In 2011 the FCC Technical Working Group Co-Chair said the laws of physics defeated the LightSquared (now Ligado’s) Proposal. Tests of the broadband communications system being proposed found that every sector and applications area of the GPS industry experienced significant levels of interference. In 2020 nothing has changed from the physical realities in effect in 2011.
Finding new areas of spectrum where sharing is possible to accommodate the Ligado Networks requirements is a difficult regulatory question. However, the FCC needs to consider other options for the Ligado Networks signals where they do not run up against the laws of physics and disable GPS navigation. While 5G communications may be an advancement GPS is a critical current capability.
Please demand that the FCC stop the approval process for Ligado Networks access to the L-Band spectrum next to our critical GPS operations.
Feel free to plagiarize me if you feel so inclined...or just send them a note saying it's not a good idea.
There is a company, Ligado Networks, out there shilling 5G capabilities and expanding into the L-Band next to GPS and DoD operations. They tried this before back in 2011 under the impetus of the Obama misadministration's effort to push broadband to the outback; their name then was LightSquared. Tests were run and it was disastrous. Here's a link to a recent article as they attempt to sneak this in again and the contents of my letter to my representatives.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/04/13/congressmen-demand-answers-on-gps-spectrum/
BLUF – I strongly oppose the FCC’s proposal to approve Ligado Networks, formerly LightSquared, operations in the spectrum of L-Band, near Defense Department and Global Positioning System (GPS) operations. Please demand an answer to how things have changed since 2011 when deployment of this system was shown to have significant incapacitating interference.
GPS touches every aspect of our lives. It goes beyond the most widely known navigation applications such as car navigation and cell phones to hugely important applications such as agriculture, electric power grids, terrestrial and space based communications networks, infrastructure monitoring, emergency responders, banking, aircraft navigation and construction.
LightSquared tried to get this same spectrum allocated in 2011, it was initially tested and showed that a single operating tower would impact GPS operations up to 300 miles away...and they intended to deploy tens of thousands of them. They have now changed their name to Ligado Networks and have cloaked their arguments in the raiment of 5G like it was a holy talisman that would make GPS jamming politically acceptable.
To be able to receive faint space based GPS signals, receivers must be designed to be highly
sensitive. GPS receivers already incorporate filters that reject transmissions in adjacent bands
that are hundreds of millions of times more powerful than the signals that are transmitted within the GPS band. Ligado Networks, is proposing to transmit signals that are billions of times more powerful than GPS satellite signals. During LightSquared’s Las Vegas open air tests, the highest recorded power levels were 800 billion times the power of GPS signals. Filters cannot block out signals that powerful in an immediately adjacent frequency band.
A couple of observations from other industry professionals might be helpful:
Philip Straub, Vice President for Aviation Engineering, Garmin International, Inc.: “GPS‐enabled devices have brought important advances in aviation safety, particularly for the General Aviation market, which comprises more than 80 percent of the active U.S. fleet. GPS is the primary means of navigation for most of the aircraft. Nearly all military aircraft utilize GPS, as do nearly 80 percent of the cargo planes. And most foreign aircraft that enter U.S. airspace are outfitted with GPS. In recognition of the far‐reaching benefits GPS brings to aviation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun implementing the NextGen program, which uses airborne GPS as an enabling technology for a revolutionized Air Traffic Control system.
“It is time to put an end to this dysfunctional testing exercise that has only proven what we have known all along – that operation of LightSquared’s proposed broadband terrestrial network will cause catastrophic harm to the aviation industry and the many other critical sectors that rely on GPS every day. LightSquared’s ‘mitigation’ and ‘solution’ proposals are as impractical as its original plan, and it would be irresponsible to waste any more industry, user, and government time, money, or resources to futilely attempt to find otherwise.”
This statement from 2011 is even more impactful today as the FAA has mandated Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) be installed in all aircraft operating in the National Airspace Systems Controlled Airspace by the end of this year. ADS-B is a solely GPS based capability and is being used for approaches in airports all over the country.
Ken Golden, Director of Global Public Relations at John Deere: “The report affirms John Deere’s position that the LightSquared network, if allowed to proceed, would have a serious impact on our customers and on the agricultural and construction industries in the U.S. The report of the working group demonstrates there is no practical solution to mitigate the interference that would result if the proposal is allowed. It is not acceptable to allow a new network to interfere with these vitally important industries and weaken the strong competitive position of the U.S. in the global economy. Research has shown that losing the use of GPS technology could have a negative impact of $14 billion to $30 billion annually for U.S. farmers.”
Siamak Mirhakimi, General Manager, Caterpillar Electronics & Systems Integration: “The study group report makes it very clear that if this planned use of spectrum is permitted to proceed its harmful interference with high precision GPS would significantly impact the heavy construction and civil engineering industries. These industries, which employ more than a million people in the U.S., have invested billions of dollars in GPS enabled products. Both depend heavily on high precision GPS technology because of the important benefits it provides: increased productivity, improved job site safety, faster project completion times and reduced fuel and rework costs. The test results clearly show substantial interference to high precision GPS which in turn will impact our products and customers. Allowing any company to cause interference to the GPS band would be a major step backward, and should be blocked.”
In 2011 the FCC Technical Working Group Co-Chair said the laws of physics defeated the LightSquared (now Ligado’s) Proposal. Tests of the broadband communications system being proposed found that every sector and applications area of the GPS industry experienced significant levels of interference. In 2020 nothing has changed from the physical realities in effect in 2011.
Finding new areas of spectrum where sharing is possible to accommodate the Ligado Networks requirements is a difficult regulatory question. However, the FCC needs to consider other options for the Ligado Networks signals where they do not run up against the laws of physics and disable GPS navigation. While 5G communications may be an advancement GPS is a critical current capability.
Please demand that the FCC stop the approval process for Ligado Networks access to the L-Band spectrum next to our critical GPS operations.
Feel free to plagiarize me if you feel so inclined...or just send them a note saying it's not a good idea.
