[aprssig] LightSquared not giving up

[Bob Burns W9RXR]

LightSquared, the wireless broadband company whose plans took a blow when
the FCC decided to not allow it access to spectrum adjacent to the
frequencies used for the Global Positioning System, is at it again with a
new proposal. Luckily, for us GPS users, it seems like they have abandoned
their plans for that part of the spectrum.

Quote from article from PCWorld:

"Embattled satellite carrier LightSquared proposed on Friday that the
government let it share spectrum with federal uses such as weather balloons
so it can get enough spectrum to launch its proposed national LTE mobile
network."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010843/lightsquared-asks-to-share-weatherballoon-spectrum-for-its-lte-network.html

And, quote from article in Ars Technica:

"LightSquared's plan to build a nationwide 4G network was hit by what
seemed like a death blow in February, when the Federal Communications
Commission revoked its tentative approval because the network would
interfere with GPS devices. But LightSquared has influential friends, and
lawmakers were eager to blame the FCC, even if they didn't really
understand the technical reasons that caused LightSquared's proposal to
fail. Spectrum swaps with federal users to bail out the company have also
been proposed.

LightSquared came up with its own proposal on Friday, which involves
sharing 5MHz of spectrum with the federal government in a band partially
used for weather balloons. It also involves abandoning its most
controversial piece of spectrum, the one just below the GPS signals. But
LightSquared still wants to build on the lower 10MHz of its spectrum, even
though the FCC has already rejected it as unsuitable because millions of
existing GPS devices can't filter out neighboring signals. To compensate,
LightSquared would lower the power levels in this portion of spectrum to
52dBm per sector EIRP, down from the previously planned power level of
62dBm, which was found to interfere with GPS."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/lightsquared-still-wont-give-up-on-spectrum-near-gps-band/

There are several other references to this topic on the web.

Bob...
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