Results of a NSF study on the FCC order is set to be released on September 9
A bipartisan group of Senators is again pushing for the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its 2020 decision that allows Ligado Networks (formerly LightSquared) to use spectrum previously reserved for satellite operations for a terrestrial 5G IoT network.
A letter from the Senators to the FCC indicates that Ligado plans to kick off operations as soon as next month, and they want the FCC to prevent that.
“We remain extremely concerned that terrestrial L-band operations would cause unacceptable risk to Department of Defense (DOD), the Federal Government Global Positioning System (GPS), and Satellite Communications (SATCOM) operations,” the letter says, going on to add: “Staying and reconsidering the Ligado Order is necessary to address the imminent risks associated with Ligado’s intention to “commence operations in the 1526-1536 MHz band on or after September 30, 2022.” We remain gravely concerned that the Ligado Order fails to adequately protect adjacent band operations—including those related to GPS and satellite communications—from harmful interference impacting countless military and commercial activities. We urge you to set aside the Ligado Order and give proper consideration to the widely held concerns across the Executive Branch, within Congress, and from the private sector regarding the expected impact of the Ligado Order on national security and other systems.”
According to a release, signatories of the letter include U.S. Senators Jack Reed D-R.I.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).
The FCC’s Ligado decision contributed to the upending of a former FCC’s commissioner’s renomination because of Senate opposition and is still a point of contention two years later, because federal agencies including the Department of Defense staunchly oppose the change in spectrum use, saying it will cause interference with existing GPS systems.
Meanwhile, the results of a Congressionally ordered National Science Foundation study on the impacts of the FCC Ligado order to GPS are set to be released within weeks. The National Science Foundation said this week that its study committee on the issue will hold a public online briefing at 11 am ET on September 9, to present the results of the study and the committee’s report will be available at National Academies Press at that same time.
Ligado holds spectrum in the 1.5-1.6 GHz range, including 30 megahertz of of L-Band spectrum plus 1.670-1.675 GHz. In order to operate a terrestrial network, Ligado was granted a modification to its existing licenses in the 1.6 GHz band, adjacent to some high-precision GPS providers and users; a group of nearly 100 users, such as Iridium Networks, have protested that the changes to Ligado’s operations will harm their operations. The FCC decision was opposed by the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration due to concerns about those neighboring GPS operations. Shortly after the FCC’s decision, NTIA asked the Commission to reconsider its action; one of the last actions of the FCC under the Trump administration and former Chairman Ajit Pai was to reject NTIA’s request for reconsideration and a stay. The possibility of the FCC reopening the subject came up in the thwarted renomination process of former commissioner Michael O’Rielly; he was ultimately replaced by Commissioner Nathan Simington.
Meanwhile, over the course of 2022 thus far, Ligado has announced a deal with Nokia to combine Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) enterprise private wireless networks solution with Ligado’s L-Band nationwide licensed spectrum for deployment in the U.S. market and picked a spectrum broker for access to its airwaves. In June of this year, the company announced that its chip partner for its mobile satellite IoT network endeavor is Sony Semiconductor Israel. The company’s spectrum has been included in 3GPP specs for 5G operations as of 2021, and Ligado has also been working with Mavenir to develop base stations as part of its plan to deploy a 5G mobile satellite network for Internet of Things (IoT) connections. The pair announced plans last year to work to establish open Radio Access Network (RAN)-compliant remote radio units and cloud-native Open RAN software compatible with Ligado’s L-band spectrum.
Amid this debate, it’s also worth noting that the Senate has yet to confirm a fifth FCC commissioner, leaving the independent regulatory agency tied at 2-2 between Democratic and Republican commissioners heading into the third year of the Biden administration. President Joe Biden’s chosen nominee, Gigi Sohn, is expected to help reinstate net neutrality rules if seated; she was not nominated for a seat by the administration until October 2021 and her nomination has been stalled in the Senate after two hearings. Former FCC commissioners have praised the current FCC for working together to continue moving the agency’s agenda forward, but Fox Business reported that the administration is vetting additional candidates for the FCC seat as it weighs whether to go forward with her nomination in a lame-duck session after the mid-term elections.
