Ligado’s plan would use federal spectrum in a way that will interfere with GPS and satellite communications—and the FCC, despite near-unanimous objection from the rest of the federal government—has just said, “OK.”
Ligado may be a new name, but this problem goes back a decade, when LightSquared was created in a hedge fund deal worth $5.3 billion.
Investors put billions on the table, and the only way to get a return was to repurpose LightSquared’s satellite spectrum for a terrestrial cell phone network.
In 2011, when LightSquared asked the FCC for permission to do just that, GPS and satellite communication users strongly objected due to the interference with GPS signals.
Federal agencies like the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) echoed these concerns.
In 2012, after it was clear there was no practical way to mitigate the GPS interference in their proposal, LightSquared declared bankruptcy.
thehill.com
