LightSquared inks deal with Javad GNSS to resolve GPS interference issues
Wholesale satellite and terrestrial carrier LightSquared today announced that it has signed an agreement with Javad GNSS to develop a system that will eliminate interference issues for high-precision GPS devices related to the deployment of LightSquared’s proposed nationwide LTE network.
LightSquared’s plans to build an LTE network on spectrum previously used only for satellite communications have been the source of considerable controversy within the wireless and GPS industries. LightSquared plans to use airwaves as far from commercial GPS operations as possible, but some signals from high-precision GPS devices used in the agriculture, surveying and construction sectors are transmitted in the LightSquared band, creating potential interference issues.
Javad GNSS has designed and tested prototypes for a solution that reconfigures the filters and linear amplifiers on high-precision GPS devices in a way that would make them compatible with LightSquared’s proposed LTE network, according to a LightSquared press release.
“I think the bottom line here is that the claim that this is an insurmountable issue is being quickly proven to be not insurmountable, and that it’s actually quite easy to fix,” LightSquared spokesman Chris Stern said in an interview.
Indeed, Javad GNSS engineers were able to develop the solution “in a matter of days,” according to the LightSquared press release.
“This interference problem is not a difficult one to solve, once you decide to solve it,’’ Javad GNSS founder Javad Ashjaee said in a prepared statement. “We’ve begun manufacturing preproduction models and expect to have 25 available within two weeks — we are not talking in hypotheticals here.”
Preproduction units will be released for public tests in October, followed by mass production, according to the press release. High-precision receivers for positioning applications are expected to go to market by November and precision timing devices by March 2012. Implementing the Javad GNSS solution into high-precision GPS products is “not expected to increase the selling price of the device to the customer,” according to the press release.
In a prepared statement, LightSquared Chairman and CEO Sanjiv Ahuja described the Javad GNSS solution as a “breakthrough” technology that “is a final step toward LightSquared’s goal of building a nationwide wireless network that will bring lower prices and better service to Americans from coast to coast.”
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