LightSquared Says Proposed FCC Ruling Is Legally Unprecedented, Not Supported By Technical Evidence, And Inconsistent With Other Recent Commission Action

LightSquared said in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission today that a ruling proposed by the FCC staff that would effectively revoke LightSquared's license to operate its network is entirely unsupported by the law, science, and FCC policy and precedent. Indeed, the Commission's proposal is wholly inconsistent with a proposal the Commission made last week in the case of another terrestrial network that raised "interference" concerns. The company detailed its position in a filing to the FCC today in response to comments by the GPS industry and others as part of the Public Notice issued by the FCC regarding the proposed action. A summary of that response can be found at http://www.lightsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FCC_Ruling_Response.pdf. LightSquared's filing states that the FCC "need not and should not embrace the false choice presented by the GPS industry between preserving LightSquared's ancillary terrestrial component (

) authority to deploy a wireless broadband network and maintaining GPS service. In fact, both goals can be achieved. The law, the equities, the facts, and the public interest demand that the Commission seek to do so."