A4A Calls on the U.S. Government to Safeguard GPS, the Backbone of NextGen

If you pay attention to any part of the global telecom business, you know that government and regulatory policies literally create, and can limit or destroy, any particular business plan, in any particular segment of the business. Spectrum allocations provide an excellent example. LightSquared and Dish Network both want permission to create new Long Term Evolution fourth generation mobile networks, but neither effort can proceed without authorization from the Federal Communications Commission.

LightSquared has been battling the objections of the Global Positioning System industry, and now apparently faces formal public opposition from the airline industry.

Airlines for America (AfA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, called for the development of a governmentwide policy to protect the aviation Global Positioning System (GPS) spectrum in order to avoid any future threat of spectrum interference. You can read between the lines: AfA is opposed to granting of the LightSquared request to use its satellite spectrum for terrestrial operations.

“GPS is critically important to the millions of customers who airlines fly every day, and is the heart of a multibillion dollar system to modernize the air navigation system,” said AfA Senior Vice President for Safety, Security and Operations Tom Hendricks. More opposition to LightSquared