Ligado claims that DoD has previously undisclosed systems running in its spectrum and has sued for compensation
Ligado Networks has filed suit against the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, claiming that DoD violations of its spectrum rights make it the victim of the “largest uncompensated taking of private property by our nation’s government in modern times.”
In the suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Ligado says that in spite of its legal spectrum rights granted by the Federal Communications Commission, undisclosed DoD systems are using those airwaves and DoD has continued to operate them, making the spectrum essentially unusable by Ligado. Ligado accuses the DoD of covering up those systems and instead making “false or misleading claims to the FCC, Congress, the White House, other federal agencies, and the public about the effects of Ligado’s proposed 5G terrestrial services on Global Position Systems.” The satellite inteference claims, Ligado says, were a “pretext” that was “central to DOD’s and DOC’s coordinated campaign to destroy Ligado’s reputation, prevent the company from using its authorized spectrum and conceal the Pentagon’s previously undisclosed systems that depend on Ligado’s exclusively licensed spectrum.”
Ligado says that it only became aware of the full extent of the situation due to two whistleblowers, including one inside DoD, “who revealed internal emails and discussions with high-ranking officials showing that the concerns were unfounded. Ligado’s conversations and the Whistleblower’s disclosures lay bare how DOD and DOC fabricated arguments, misled Congress in testimony supporting anti-Ligado legislation, and orchestrated a public smear campaign, which included repeating those false claims to the public and threatening Ligado’s business partners with canceling their own government contracts if they worked with Ligado. DOD and DOC took those remarkable steps to destroy an American company, not out of concerns about Ligado’s use of its own spectrum rights, but so that DOD could continue to use Ligado’s spectrum for its own purposes without paying.”
Ligado says in its filing that the previously undisclosed DoD systems “depend on the entirety of Ligado’s spectrum authorized for wireless terrestrial 5G services, and are needed by DOD on a permanent basis.”
The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing anonymous sources, that even as Ligado filed its lawsuit seeking compensation, the company is also preparing to file for bankruptcy protection “within weeks.”
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 5G network, Ligado was granted a modification by the FCC to its existing licenses in the 1.6 GHz band, adjacent to some high-precision GPS providers and users; during that process, a group of nearly 100 users, such as Iridium Networks, protested that the changes to Ligado’s operations would harm their operations. The FCC decision was also strongly opposed by the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, due to stated concerns about those neighboring GPS operations.
Since the FCC’s unanimous grant of the license modification in 2020, Ligado’s spectrum rights and the use of those airwaves has been a hotly contested issues in Washington, D.C., with the DoD and bipartisan members of Congress pressuring the independent regulatory agency to re-open the conversation and reverse itself. 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 FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly; he was ultimately replaced by Commissioner Nathan Simington.
Ligado, over the course of 2022 and 2023, has lined up multiple deals with the likes of Nokia and Mavenir on solutions and hardware to leverage its spectrum, and the company raised additional capital and debt to build out its 5G network and services (just last week, the company announced plans to offer a private LTE solution from Taiwanese advanced metering infrastructure and private network provider Ubiik to run in Band 54 spectrum at 1670-1675 MHz, targeting the utilities sector and other mission-critical customers).
But late last year, Ligado cancelled a trial of its 5G service in northern Virginia, and said at the time that it had “reached this decision to allow time for the company’s discussions with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, acting in its statutory role on behalf of the Executive Branch, to resolve in a fair and reasonable manner issues relating to the government’s ongoing use of Ligado’s terrestrial spectrum.”
Now, Ligado is claiming that it has been deprived of “tens of billions of dollars” due to DoD’s ongoing use of its spectrum as well as the campaign to undermine the company’s ability to use its spectrum rights.
“The DOD misled the FCC, Congress and many others in its unconstitutional taking of our property and ongoing obstruction of our operations and, in doing so, deprived millions of Americans from access to much needed 5G services,” said Doug Smith, president and CEO of Ligado, in a statement. “The FCC, the federal agency with exclusive authority over the use and licensing of spectrum, made its final decision in 2020 after a thorough and exhaustive public review process. They stand by that decision today. Since then, we have worked diligently and in good faith with other government agencies to try and reach a fair resolution that would allow us to deploy our spectrum or be compensated appropriately. However, at this stage, DOD’s, DOC’s and NTIA’s unlawful actions have left us no choice but to pursue litigation to defend our interests, protect our employees and stakeholders and uphold the rule of law.”
