Letter on LightSquared

Ashton Carter, U.S. deputy secretary for the Department of Defense, and John Porcari, deputy secretary for the Department of Transportation, have written a letter to Lawrence Strickling, assistant secretary for the Department of Commerce on the LightSquared findings by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (EXCOM).

Letter excerpts state:

….the unanimous conclusion of the test findings by the National Space-Based PNT EXCOM Agencies that both LightSquared’s original and modified plans for its proposed mobile network would cause harmful interference to many GPS receivers.

…there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS.

According to the letter, there is no additional testing planned at this time. To read the letter in its entirety, click here.

LightSquared is a company with plans to build a wireless broadband communications network that will be integrated with satellite coverage across the United States. For more information about LightSquared and a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing held last September, click here.

 

This article is part of Space Watch: February 2012 (Volume: 11, Issue: 2).