LightSquared Says GPS Device Makers 'Rigged' Test Results

The LightSquared saga is like the Energizer bunny – it goes on, and on, and on, and on. But not in a good way.

At last glance, LightSquared was making its case to the media, among others, reiterating the message that GPS device makers are intentionally throwing a monkey wrench into its plans to launch service on a planned 4G wireless network. In describing the situation, Jeff Carlisle, executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy at LightSquared, went as far as to say GPS device makers “rigged” their test results by using out-of-date devices. He added that they did the “invalid” testing in a way that prevented any input from outside sourced, and charged that they intentionally leaked the results.

“The devices tested focused on obsolete and niche devices which were chosen because they were the least resilient devices,” he said in a press conference earlier today. Some of the devices tested were released in 1997 and 1998, some with no filtering whatsoever. “Those modules aren’t even sold to consumers,” he said. “Those devices now represent less than 1 percent of devices.”

Carlisle went on to say that over the past 12 months, LightSquared has spent countless hours and a mountain of dough communicating with federal agencies to find a workable solution to its spectrum woes, which involve the airline industry and GPS device makers sounding the alarm that a LightSquared network would create significant interference issues with their applications. LightSquared, he said, has made multiple efforts to make things work, but has not been met with the same effort by the GPS community.

“The testing just doesn’t reflect reality, and it probably was never intended to,” Carlisle concluded.

LightSquared has long been under fire as some in the GPS industry have raised concerns that its planned 4G wireless network will cause interference with their technologies, potentially affecting such critical systems as air traffic control. In an interview with MobilityTechzone last year, LightSquared Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben said that the organizations raising these complaints primarily are device manufacturers that have had eight years to adjust their products to allow them to coexist peacefully with new technologies in the FCC-approved ATC spectrum, but instead elected a strategy of “squatting” on LightSquared’s L-band spectrum.

When the FCC approved the ATC spectrum, which is satellite spectrum repurposed for terrestrial use, everybody knew that some tweaks would have to be made to avoid interference problems between the existing satellite and new ATC technologies, Boulben indicated. GPS receivers in smartphones from Apple, RIM and Samsung already contain five- to 25-cent filters to prevent such interference, he added, but not everybody in the GPS device space has been as proactive in employing such interference avoidance technologies.

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