At press time, the first of three monthly reports of the technical arguments between experts from LightSquared and the GPS community over GPS jamming was about to be issued. LightSquared proposes to offer NAS-wide high-speed voice and Internet service under a waiver of FCC satellite rules that would permit such transmissions from 40,000 powerful ground stations in the 1525 to 1559 MHz band allocated to low-powered satellite signals. That band is next to the 1560 to 1610 MHz band containing the sole civil GPS frequency, reportedly a billion times weaker than LightSquared’s signals.
Garmin simulations showed that spillover from LightSquared’s stations started to interfere with a TSO’d GPS airborne receiver at 13.8 miles and totally jammed it at 5.6 miles. Garmin warned of potential “widespread severe GPS jamming,” that would “deny GPS service over vast areas of the United States.” LightSquared asserted that GPS would be unaffected, and that the ongoing three months of testing and analysis would confirm that hypothesis. Nevertheless, the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Commerce and Homeland Security, as well as the civil GPS Industry Council, filed objections with the FCC, citing “significant interference concerns.” Separately, FAA sources warned AIN of potentially “serious impacts” on NextGen.
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