Apr 29, 2020
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is threatening to block the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision regarding the deployment of a 5G network that may interfere with commercial and military GPS signals.Last week, the five-member FCC voted unanimously to allow Ligado Networks to deploy a low-power nationwide 5G network despite objections from federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Commerce and Justice, as well as major U.S. airlines.
The 5G network will use an L-band spectrum that has the potential to disrupt commercial and military GPS signals, therefore raising concerns that the technology will impact U.S. national security.
Read the full story at CNBC.
Apr 22, 2020
Right now, the coronavirus is rightly our country’s most immediate concern. But the Federal Communications Commission has used the crisis, under the cover of darkness, to approve a long-stalled application by Ligado Networks — a proposal that threatens to undermine our global positioning system (GPS) capabilities, and with it, our national security.
Continue reading “OPINION (Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Mac Thornberry): FCC and Ligado are undermining GPS – and with it, our economy and national security”
Apr 16, 2020
Thirteen agencies responsible for much if not most of the nation’s military, civil, security and economic activity say Ligado Networks’ plan to use satellite frequencies for 5G communications would interfere with GPS users in general and DOD use in particular.
Continue reading “InsideGNSS: Multi-agency Report Opposing Ligado Request Could Be Last Element in Controversy”
Apr 16, 2020
The chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has teamed up with the chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee to demand answers from the Federal Communications Commission on whether reallocating a band of spectrum will damage the Global Positioning System, or GPS, as the Pentagon claims.
Read the full story at C4ISRNET.com
Apr 16, 2020
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve a draft order as soon as today that would reallocate a specific portion of the radio spectrum for broadband communications, overruling a decade of strong objections from the Department of Defense.
Continue reading “C4ISRNET: FCC to approve spectrum plan that Pentagon claims will harm GPS”
Jan 18, 2018
Ligado’s terrestrial broadband service plans are perhaps “the greatest current threat” to the position, navigation and timing universe, PNTAdvisory Board Vice Chairman Bradford Parkinson wrote Tuesday for GPS World…
Read at Communications Daily
Jan 16, 2018
It seems unrealistic that Ligado can or will reliably guarantee that these widespread installations will be continually adjusted and monitored to avoid GPS interference. I believe the concept of allowing the installation of transmitting towers that, by design, will interfere with normal GPS use at some distance away opens the door to tacit approval of short-range (or not-so-short-range) GPS jammers. While I can commend the entrepreneurial spirit, the Ligado proposal seems very reckless indeed. The incremental value of an additional broadband transmitting system when there are at least five already in existence seems trivial compared to the potential damage done to the modern utility named GPS. I sincerely hope the FCC can find a spectrum swap or deny outright the current Ligado application…
Read at GPS World
Jan 1, 2018
Aireon, a joint venture between Iridium Communications, Nav Canada, the Irish Aviation Authority, Italian air navigation service provider Enav, and Naviair—which provides air navigation services in Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands—is on track to have a space-based ADS-B network operational in 2018. Aireon is doing this with an ADS-B receiver payload piggybacking on each of the 75 new Iridium NEXT communication satellites…
Read more at AOPA.org
Oct 31, 2017
The long-running, high stakes battle between the GPS community and Ligado Networks may enter a new phase next month when the firm presents to the nation’s leading GPS experts its plan to develop a combined terrestrial/satellite network using its spectrum neighboring the GPS band…
Read at Inside GNSS
Oct. 26, 2017
Ligado is attempting to rewrite the rules to the detriment of GPS and a fast-growing satellite service. That’s certainly not what we voted for in 2003 and not something the FCC should allow today…
Read at Morning Consult
