On January 19, 2021, a letter signed by a number of groups across a wide range of industries was sent to all five commissioners of the FCC and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The letter asked that the FCC grant the pending request for Stay of the Ligado Order for the sake of safety to SATCOM services across the country.

In the letter, the groups stated:

“To ensure that the objectives of the NDAA provisions and the intent of Congress can be achieved, the Commission must act on the pending and broadly supported request of NTIA and stay the initial Ligado Order. Absent a stay, Ligado could move forward with deployments, potentially mooting the Congressional requirement of an independent technical evaluation of Ligado’s proposed network and complicating further remedial efforts. As the Commission has long recognized, an agency must ensure that its actions do not render statutory provisions ‘superfluous’ – which is precisely what would happen if Ligado remained able to move forward before the congressionally prescribed evaluation occurred. Likewise, failure to issue the requested stay would frustrate Congress’s purpose in mandating independent review. Even when Congress has been silent on the specific question at hand, an agency is required to act ‘consistent with the congressional purpose.'”

Read the letter in full here.