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Terrestrial Broadband Network
Home > News and Events > Terrestrial Broadband Network

Subject: Issues with the LightSquared Terrestrial Broadband Network

A few months ago, I wrote to you with a call to action (attached) requesting help on an issue concerning the company LightSquared and a decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant it conditional approval to build a terrestrial based broadband system. Early testing had shown that this proposed broadband system interfered with existing equipment and would adversely impact many of our precision ag customers and millions of GPS users. We really appreciated your response to this and your successful efforts to reach members of Congress on this issue.

Since then, LightSquared has proposed mitigation techniques to remedy the interference to GPS by operating terrestrial transmitters only in the lower 10MHz of its spectrum. The FCC has called for additional testing because the lower band has not been adequately tested. Concerns remain that this could still interfere with GPS, especially high-precision receivers and devices used in national security, aviation, and agriculture.

We fully agree that more testing should be done to ensure that users of high-precision GPS (many of our agricultural customers) are not impacted by the proposed broadband network. All indications are that the GPS signals that farmers use every day to plant, till, and harvest crops would be disrupted. Our means to provide food and fiber, sustainably, for a growing world population would be jeopardized by LightSquared and its broadband spectrum.

Our position is this:
  • We need full, conclusive testing to show that the LightSquared broadband network would not impact high-precision GPS systems. They should not be allowed to proceed until it can be shown that their network would not disrupt precision agricultural GPS capabilities, or until they present a viable solution to interference problems.
  • Any cost for further testing, adjustments in signal, filters, or other recommendations by LightSquared should be paid for by LightSquared and not the providers or users of the current GPS systems.
There has been much misinformation about the proposal from LightSquared so we would appreciate your help in communicating to customers, business partners, local officials, and Congress our stance on this issue.