[time-nuts] latest on the lightsquared 'saga'
Charles P. Steinmetz
charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com
Fri Mar 4 13:27:31 UTC 2011
Bob wrote:
>Indeed this is my fear. The authorization really has very little to
>do with filling in dark holes in the sat coverage and everything to
>do with setting up a full blown terrestrial system.
Correct. LightSquared's business model is to be a wholesale network
provider. The FCC waiver explicitly allows LS to provide terrestrial
network capacity only, to customers who do not care about satellite
connectivity (which could be most of them). This is a preview of the
future, in which there will be other terrestrial licensees on the
spectrum that won't even need to have satellites in orbit.
However, if these terrestrial networks do interfere with GPS in any
significant way, the GPS interests will howl and something likely
will be done. For that matter, LS will be relying on GPS timing
receivers mounted next to its base stations to make its LTE network
function. So don't give up just yet.
Best regards,
Charles
More information about the time-nuts
mailing list