FCC Asked to Protect GPS From LightSquared

By Doug Lung
published


Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) have sent an open letter to colleagues asking them to join together in asking the FCC "to take all necessary steps to protect the Global Positioning System."

The letter refers to the FCC International Bureau's grant of a conditional waiver allowing LightSquared to build tens of thousands of ground stations which could cause widespread interference to GPS signals. The letter also describes how vital GPS is for public safety, national defense and the nation's economic recovery.

The document ends with a request for members of Congress to join the Senators in requesting that the FCC make certain that GPS "is not compromised in any way."

They noted that the full Commission must be involved in this effort and must require that LightSquared objectively demonstrate non-interference to GPS signals as a condition prior to operation of the company's proposed wireless broadband service. The letter stated that anything less than this "is an unacceptable risk to public safety."

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.