LightSquared: Dead corp walking; FCC foils LTE plan

The FCC has killed LightSquared's hopes of running a terrestrial LTE network on satellite frequency bands. After analyzing the problem of GPS interference, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said it's a lost cause, so the FCC put a stop to it. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder how we even got this far.
 
By Richi Jennings: Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Technician-class ham license self-study help...
 
 
Stephen Lawson reports:

LightSquared wants to operate the LTE network in...spectrum, which is next to the band used by GPS. On Tuesday, the [NTIA] concluded that tests have shown too much interference...and said there is no way to mitigate [it].
...
On that basis, the FCC proposed steps that probably would make it impossible...to run the LTE network. ... LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja...complain[ed] that politics had trumped science in the government's decisions.   

    
Greg Bensinger adds:

LightSquared had been criticized by the [DoD], legislators and makers of...[GPS] devices, who say its network signal...could interfere. ... Sanjiv Ahuja vowed to work towards finding a solution...noting the company had already spent $4 billion on building its network.
...
The FCC ruling comes at a difficult time for the company as it faces an April interest payment on $1.6 billion...and several hundred million dollars of...debt due in July. ... LightSquared may lose an important partner in Sprint...if it cannot get FCC approval...by mid-March.   

Azam Ahmed says they're almost out of time:

Philip Falcone’s...hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, will undoubtedly suffer dearly. ... [It] has sunk about $3 billion into [LightSquared]...about 60 percent of its main fund.
...
Last year, Harbinger lost about 47 percent after the book value of LightSquared was cut sharply by...auditors. ... Most of his outside investors have long since fled the fund. ... [It] would appear not to have much of a future.   

Your humble blogwatcher isn't surprised about the NTIA/FCC ruling:

Anyone with a decent understanding of the real, analog world would have known this will never work. ... LightSquared was dead wrong to assume it could use those frequencies without stomping all over GPS. ... LightSquared's argument is that...any interference is the fault of badly-designed GPS receivers...[but that's] incredibly naive.
...
[The] bandwidth of a signal is infinite...lower power "sideband" transmissions will extend far above and below the intended range. ... This isn't normally a problem, because adjacent frequency bands are usually used at similar power levels. ... [But] the LightSquared terrestrial power is roughly a million times stronger.   

 
And kctongo agrees:

Any receiver can be interfered with. ... Just bring the source of the interference close enough and ramp up the transmitted power high enough. ... Receiver designers create designs that will work with...a 'normal' amount of 'out-of-band' interference.
 
When the...interference increases by a factor of millions, billions, or perhaps even trillions...the existing designs will not be effective.   

Meanwhile, busyqth twists the knife:

LightSquared knew [that] the spectrum...was licensed only for low power...transmissions. They figured they could game the system somehow and convert [it] into much more valuable high power...spectrum.
 
They were wrong, and the fault is entirely theirs.   

   
And Finally...
Technician-class ham license self-study help
[which includes this topical reminder about RF interference]

   
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch, for which he has won ASBPE and Neal awards. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.