From Ligado to Verizon to Dish, spectrum conflicts continue brewing

The FCC and other US government agencies are working feverishly to coordinate their spectrum agendas in the wake of a very public battle between the wireless industry and the airline industry over 5G. But it’s clear the efforts haven’t stopped spectrum disagreements.

The latest dustup involves ongoing concerns that Ligado Networks’ planned wireless network will interfere with GPS signals. The FCC has issued multiple rulings in favor of Ligado. But a group of senators representing the US military are now trying to get the FCC to reverse its position on Ligado.

“We remain gravely concerned that the [FCC’s] Ligado Order fails to adequately protect adjacent band operations – including those related to GPS and satellite communications – from harmful interference impacting countless military and commercial activities,” wrote the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee in a new letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

“We urge you to set aside the Ligado Order and give proper consideration to the widely held concerns across the Executive Branch, within Congress, and from the private sector regarding the expected impact of the Ligado Order on national security and other systems,” continued the group, which includes Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

Ligado has maintained that its network won’t interfere with GPS but said it is willing to work with the Department of Defense to resolve concerns.

“After more than a decade of scientific review, the nation’s spectrum experts at the FCC determined the concessions Ligado made and the conditions in the April 2020 FCC Order protect GPS. No concrete evidence to the contrary has been put forth by any private entity or government agency, including the Defense Department, despite repeated requests,” the company wrote in a statement responding to the letter.

Ligado continued: “If there is an issue DOD is concerned about, the best way to resolve it is for the DOD and Ligado to work through those issues as soon as possible, as the FCC Order requires and as Congress has mandated. The science and facts support the FCC’s unanimous, bipartisan decision to grant Ligado’s spectrum, and if there are DOD GPS receivers operating in our licensed spectrum that need to be upgraded, Ligado is ready to do so.”

Ligado owns around 40MHz of spectrum in the 1600MHz L-band, and the company is planning to switch on part of a 5G network in that spectrum in September in Virginia. Nokia is supplying some of the equipment for the network. Ligado eventually hopes to sell nationwide 5G services on a hybrid terrestrial/satellite network for private networking applications, including in the utility industry.

Concerns that the network will interfere with some GPS devices are not new. Ligado traces its corporate lineage to LightSquared – backed by billionaire investor Philip Falcone – which launched in 2010 with a plan to build a nationwide, wholesale LTE network that it would resell to other telecom operators or other companies. That plan fell apart after the FCC ruled that the proposed network would interfere with GPS signals.

LightSquared fell into bankruptcy, and Falcone exited the picture. But Ligado arose from LightSquared’s ashes in 2015 with a plan to build a 5G network using that same L Band spectrum, but this time focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT).

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