FCC +1, Lighsquared -1

murphey

murphey

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FCC +1, Lightsquished

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/15/technology/lightsquared_gps/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

"The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said late Tuesday that LightSquared's network could interfere with GPS signals, despite LightSquared's proposed engineering solutions. That interference has the potential to be extremely dangerous: In addition to powering consumer navigation devices, GPS is used by the military and the aviation industry to guide airplanes and missiles.

As a result of NTIA's decision, the Federal Communications Commission revoked a waiver that would have allowed LightSquared to turn on its network. The FCC on Wednesday plans to issue a public proposal that would bar LightSquared from launching its service "indefinitely."
 
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This is a HUGE deal. Maybe this is one of the first steps the FCC will make in correcting their errors.
 
And that decision will have a negative financial impact on Sprint, who must return $65 million to Falcone's fund and face the prospect of not getting revenue from proposed network sharing.
 
wsuffa said:
And that decision will have a negative financial impact on Sprint, who must return $65 million to Falcone's fund and face the prospect of not getting revenue from proposed network sharing.
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I thought their involvement was contingent on securing the go ahead from the FCC.
 
bartmc said:
I thought their involvement was contingent on securing the go ahead from the FCC.
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It was/is. But they already accepted $65 Million from LS which has to be returned if FCC approval is not granted. The bigger issue, I'm sure, is the anticipated savings from sharing the network between Sprint and LS.
 
Sprint's been on the road to death for so long, everyone's forgotten they're still headed there. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
Sprint's been on the road to death for so long, everyone's forgotten they're still headed there. ;)
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They tried really hard to lose my business and did a very good job. Not only am I no longer a customer, I never will be again.
 
This isn't really a +1 for the FCC. The agency is going to face questions in a House hearing this year about how it fast-tracked LightSquared without seeking input from affected stakeholders in the first place. The FCC claims it was trying to avoid bureaucratic red tape and impeding the private sector, but this could get very uncomfortable if people start following the money, especially in an election year.

LightSquared was backed by a hedge fund that was betting big. The idea was it could take a chunk of radio spectrum, originally acquired on the premise it would be used for a satellite-based network, and acquired at a price which reflected its limitation to that use, and get an FCC waiver allowing ground stations which would increase the value of the asset.

It's hard to know whether the decline in the technical competence of the commission has really reached this point, or whether the Obama administration's priority on broadband access for everyone overruled common sense, but this should have been a no-brainer from the get-go.

LightSquared has correctly argued that GPS receiver manufacturers have used cheap filtering schemes which don't protect adequately against overload from strong signals in an adjacent band. No argument. The part not mentioned is that GPS design engineers were told that wouldn't be an issue. An international treaty limits signal strength in the spectrum LightSquared acquired to allow cheap, plentiful GPS receivers for all. There's no question that compromise has produced a fantastic advance for mankind.

This was classic "re-write the rules after the game begins." If the FCC hadn't ticked off the Department of Defense with the blind-side waiver, this might have ended differently.
 
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PW_Plack said:
It's hard to know whether the decline in the technical competence of the commission has really reached this point, or whether the Obama administration's priority on broadband access for everyone overruled common sense, but this should have been a no-brainer from the get-go.
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Some are already peddling rumors that Falcone's political contributions to Obama were well spent and that orders to fast-track came from the very top. It's very easy to find "evidence", too: everyone in hedge fund business contributes disproportionally to Democrats, and Falcone was a savvy operator. Of course he tried to bribe on the highest level he could. We will never know how much of this was story was greased.
 
Time for a great deal on the inevitable auction sale of lightsquared office furniture.
 
I'm looking forward to the backlash from the ticked off investors. They are the type of folks who don't get mad, they get even.
 
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