With major websites going dark to protest the looming SOPA legislation this week, it's a good time to note that another of the nation's hottest technology issues is quickly moving from push to shove, complete with accusations of double-dealing government agencies and conflicts of interest.
At first, the ongoing controversy over an effort to solve America's looming spectrum crunch looks like some sort of Republican blue-sky, free-market scenario: a private firm backed by a longtime GOP campaign contributor puts tens of billions of dollars into a solution (and launches a satellite), goes through 8 years of regulatory process beginning under George W. Bush, signs agreements with 35 partners and is poised to create real competition in the wireless marketplace while also creating thousands of jobs.
It should be a Republican case study of private sector infrastructure. Instead, it turns out that some powerful Republicans in some agricultural states have supporters who have been poaching into the spectrum LightSquared owns and intends to use for a new nationwide broadband network. Essentially, they've been trespassing on LightSquared's property for years and are now upset at being evicted. As a result, the new system causes issues for the GPS system -- the positioning network uses some of the LightSquared spectrum to improve accuracy.
To understand just how ridiculous this is, you have to understand that the LightSquared initiative is a game changer. It builds on the satellite network already familiar to boaters and first responders to create a national wireless network with no dead zones -- if you have access to the American sky, you have access to your phone and the Internet.
Enter the politics.
While LightSquared now says it has fixed most of the GPS interference problems, including issues with "high precision" GPS devices , the GPS industry said "no way," and -- finding that perhaps the FCC was not buying the story -- spent millions to expand the debate into Congress and anywhere else it could find, like the Department of Defense.
The gloves came off this week when LightSquared said that some government testing by the nation's Air Force Space Command on behalf of a committee looking into the issue was "rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results, and revealed details of the testing to document its accusations."
The company also called out conflicts of interest asking,"Isn't it a violation of conflict of interest laws for representatives of GPS manufacturers to sit on the PNT advisory board and play a central role in its consideration of LightSquared when those companies are actively lobbying on the same issue?"
Senior executives of the company also went very public this week, holding a call with reporters to outline how they feel "GPS industry insiders and government end users manipulated the latest round of tests to generate biased results."
The call included regulatory heavyweight, Edmond Thomas, former chief engineer at the FCC, who was on hand to explain "how fair and accurate testing should be conducted."
LightSquared argues the tests used select devices and random power levels chosen to ensure failure, and that's why there's no transparency and why the company's own independent lab results are being ignored.
As a legislator from a rural state, this tennis match between sides is immensely frustrating. In Maine, we used Recovery Act funds to invest in the Three Ring Binder project that is bringing broadband to parts of the state that did not have it. But there are still places that need broadband for businesses to compete, their kids to learn and to bridge a very real digital divide.
It's time to end the political theatre and put the discussion squarely back where it belongs: solving the physics problem. The "he said-she said" match may produce great headlines, but leaves real people and real businesses facing a spectrum-induced blackout that makes the SOPA protest look convenient.
Diane Russell is a Maine State Representative serving part of Portland. She was recently named as the Most Valuable State Representative by The Nation in its 2011 Progressive Honor Roll.
Craig Aaron: When Whinosaurs Attack!
Michael Geist: SOPA: A Warning to Canada Lawmakers
Consider this: smartphones use 24 times more spectrum than a traditional wireless phone and iPads use 120 times more spectrum than the cell phone you probably had just 4 or 5 years ago. Spectrum is finite and the Federal Communications Commission and Congress must be very strategic in their decision-making.
We can't afford to let spectrum go un-used because “neighbors” can’t seem to stay on their own property. Any and all technologies will need to be utilized to ensure a peaceful co-existence among all the users if this country has any chance of meeting our spectrum demands.
And quite frankly in this case the neighbor who cant stay in his property is Lightsquared not the GPS infrastructure both civilian and military.
The PR that LightSquared presents about bring broadband to rural communities is mostly false since it's one satellite would be unable to provide anything more than sub 3G speeds and a tiny amount of data, while its wholesale partners will not even sell many satellite capable handsets to begin with.
On the other hand, the opposition to LightSquared is grounded on real facts, the first series of tests led by LightSquared themselves in the first half of 2011 already proved beyond doubt that LightSquared's original network would irreparably harm GPS with no viable fix. This would cause billions of dollars of economic damage. Even the second proposed network has already been tested and again failed, and the FAA has stated that LightSquared's network will decrease air safety and cause 800 additional deaths over the next ten years and render billions of dollars of investment in new air traffic control useless.
The proposed LightSquared signals would be billions of times stronger than GPS on the ground. In recognition of the interference issues caused by such powerful signals, the FCC has granted LightSquared an Ancillary Terrestrial Component right, that is to build supplemental terrestrial transmitters in areas where satellite reception is difficult. LightSquared, under current Federal regulation 47 CFR 25.255, is also required not to interfere with existing legitimate users of the 1.5-1.6 GHz spectrum, such as GPS:
25.255 - Procedures for resolving harmful interference related to operation of ancillary terrestrial components operating in the 1.5./1.6 GHz, 1.6/2.4 GHz and 2 GHz bands.
"If harmful interference is caused to other services by ancillary MSS ATC operations, either from ATC base stations or mobile terminals, the MSS ATC operator must resolve any such interference. If the MSS ATC operator claims to have resolved the interference and other operators claim that interference has not been resolved, then the parties to the dispute may petition the Commission for a resolution of their claims."
And even if LightSquared got through, it won’t even be much of a benefit for rural residents. As it will uses Sprint’s physical infrastructure, high speed wireless will only have be available where Sprint coverage already exists. The single satellite that LightSquared has in operation will only be able to provide speeds more equivalent to 2.5G and with a limited data quota. And given LightSquared’s business plans, the vast majority of compatible handsets will not even have a satellite capability. And many rural residents have already protested against LightSquared given its effect on high-precision GPS used in modern agriculture. You’ll find virtually every major agricultural organization is against it. Plus, if you look at the FCC’s docket regarding LightSquared, you’ll find that in just the last two weeks filings from Highway Departments from Minnesota’s Hubbard and Mahnomen Counties plus the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyor all against LightSquared.
If you've ever used one of those little FM transmitters for iPods you will have noticed that the signal from these is not very strong and if you set the transmitter to transmit in a radio band to close to that of a commercial FM station the signal from the iPods FM transmitter will be drowned out by the signal from the commercial station. The same situation is happening with Lightsquared's ground based transmitters which uses a band that is close to that used by GPS technology.
If anything the entire mess could have been avoided by Lightsquared if it had picked a frequency other than the one close to the one used by GPS technology.
May I suggest that you all actually take the time to actually do some research about basics of GPS and Radio signals before throwing out claims that have little if any basis in reality. Also the attempts by Lightsquared to blame GPS receiver manufacturers for the problem have little if any credibility.
GPS receivers are passive in their reception of signals the only sense in which they are using . The signal transmitted by satellites is a mere 50 watts which by the the time it reaches Earth surface it is a mere fraction of a watt. Thus GPS receivers need to be very sensitive to be able to detect signals whose strength at most can be measured in a thousandth of watt.
A radio signal receiver antenna is basically a means of converting an electromagnetic radio signal in to electrical energy it can be tuned to a specific frequency if there is a signal in a nearby frequency it will also be converted to electrical energy at a lesser efficiency. This is normally not a problem if the signal strength is equal or less than the signal on the frequency the receiver is tuned to receive. However if the signal strength on the nearby frequency is greater than that of the radio signal on the frequency the antenna is tuned to receive the signal you want to receive will be drowned out by the energy of the stronger signal.
U dont understand these bills fully.
To just accept these bills without reading.
To not understand whats going on.
How can we let this go on?
Only we can make a difference.
Lets fight this!!
Everyone do your part!!
Money in politics does not just corrupt the "system", it corrupts the participants. Take SOAPA. The fallout is that Hollywood moguls now threaten to cut off campaign contributions, which just creates a vacuum that their now rival Silicon Valley will rush into on the cheap. Ironically, Silicon Valley (high-tech) has the same piracy problem. If Hollywood moguls would have sat down with Silicon Valley over coffee a "doable" solution could have been achieved that would protect the independent musician, film maker, and software developer alike while protecting the giants too. Instead, Hollywood, assuming correctly that their contributions had bought Congress, turned to Congress first and produced a solution that is technically impossible to implement and totally unpalatable to anyone but themselves.
The GPS industry is doing the same thing. Instead of looking first for a technical solution, they have turned to their lobbyists, campaign bundlers, and captive agencies. This is madness.
So what's the equivalent, for this situation, of the popular uprising that has killed SOAPA? Maybe we need a thousand rural schools to "go black" on a Wednesday to get the message across. Maine is not the only state with a rural population dependent on a real workable solution.
If I enter a contractual agreement with a client and take more than what both parties agreed to, I'm told I'm breaking the terms of the contract and a thief and fraud. If someone with enough money does that, like a bank or the GPS industry, suddenly people are timid of making strong claims and casting aspersions. There shouldn't be one standard for the 1% and another for the 99%. In fact, I think it was Augustine--and later MLK--who pointed out that seeking to enforce rules you yourself do not abide by is the very definition of injustice.