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LightSquared vs. GPS: Beware of simple thinking
- TAGS:4G, enterprise, GPS, Insider Content, LightSquared, LTE, Satellite
- IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Enterprise Apps, Government & Regulation, Internet, LAN/WAN/Broadband/Wireless, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Security
Incredibly, would-be wireless provider, LightSquared, is still tilting at windmills. It continues to waste everyone's time in a vain effort to transmit terrestrial 4G signals on frequencies adjacent to those used for GPS satellites. Anyone with a decent understanding of the real, analog world would have known this will never work, as we'll see in The Long View...
(by @richi 
)
For several years, LightSquared has been planning and building a hybrid terrestrial and satellite-based 4G network. However, about nine months ago, the FCC ordered the company not to use the terrestrial component of its service, for fear of interfering with GPS signals. Unsurprisingly, LightSquared then embarked on a campaign of indignant lobbying.
But, in my opinion, LightSquared was dead wrong to assume it could use those frequencies without stomping all over GPS. Alexander Pope was right: A little learning is a dangerous thing. And this is important, because GPS has become a piece of critical infrastructure -- essential to our way of life.
LightSquare's argument is that its transmissions aren't within the GPS frequency bands. So it opines that any interference is the fault of badly-designed GPS receivers, not of its transmitters.
However, this point of view is incredibly naive. It may make perfect sense to someone who doesn't understand the inherently-analog nature of radio signals, but that doesn't make LightSquared correct.
Read on...
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