[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







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