LightSquared Nudges FCC to Reallocate NOAA Spectrum

There's a bipartisan consensus that the FCC "should move promptly with actions to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band to commercial use," said LightSquared counsel Covington & Burling in an ex parte letter filed Monday that has not yet appeared in docket 12-340. "LightSquared would like to have the FCC issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that says, 'we should auction the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spectrum. Does anyone have any reactions to that?'" said former chairman of the FCC Reed Hundt, now at the Coalition for Green Capital. "LightSquared is filing a question to the FCC." The letter included a Wall Street Journalcolumn by Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Megan Smith, the U.S. chief technology officer, about NOAA freeing up this spectrum and moving its system of satellites. "Here’s the White House giving its views in a public way, saying let’s do it," Hundt said. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 requested the commission to reallocate this band, the letter said. The letter also included a NOAA filing at the FCC that details plans to transition the spectrum band to commercial use. In 2012, LightSquared filed a petition to reallocate to commercial use spectrum NOAA currently uses for weather balloon communications. The FCC declined to comment.