Globalstar Rebuts Criticism of TLPS Demo, Which Critic Slams

BNP Paribas and Globalstar executives met with FCC officials to rebut criticism of the satellite company's demonstration at the agency of terrestrial low-power service (see 1503130015), while a critic of the company's TLPS request slammed the demo. Globalstar’s filings and website "perfectly illustrate why their demonstration system should not be used to decide policy: their 'Bluetooth-TLPS Demonstration' system was unlikely to cause interference ~90% of the time," said Gerst Capital in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-213. "Their conditions were far from challenging, and do not represent real world interference scenarios." Others who observed the test have said similar things, while Globalstar has called Gerst a short seller that profits from creating doubt (see 1503130016). At their meeting with front-office International Bureau officials, representatives from BNP Paribas, which has said it's an agent to some Globalstar lenders, and executives from the satellite company supported TLPS. The commission should "expeditiously" adopt rules it proposed in 2013 to let Globalstar provide TLPS mobile broadband service in its spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz and adjacent, unlicensed spectrum, said representatives of the bank. Globalstar demonstrated that TLPS is compatible with existing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operations in the 2.4 GHz band, said representatives including CEO Jay Monroe, Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Clary and General Counsel Barbee Ponder. Globalstar and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group "mutually agreed on the operational parameters for the Bluetooth demonstrations," said the company in a filing posted Thursday to the docket. "CableLabs’ TLPS/Wi-Fi demonstration set-up was in no sense representative of a real-world deployment," said Globalstar of the cable research and development group, which like the Bluetooth group has expressed concerns about the demo. "Any results provided by CableLabs in this proceeding should be entirely discounted."