NCTA Lobbies FCC To Oppose Globalstar's TLPS While Company's Investors Lobby for It

NCTA lobbied the FCC against Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) for broadband, while investors in the company lobbied for it, ex parte filings posted Thursday in docket 13-213 show. The company has sought rules adding 22 MHz to U.S. wireless broadband spectrum inventory, which it has said will ease congestion that is hurting Wi-Fi service quality. Detractors from a variety of other industries have been concerned about interference (see 1505060036). NCTA noted that without "appropriate testing," there's opposition to commission action here from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, CEA, Entertainment Software Association, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. Globalstar's TLPS demo showed "its many limitations," NCTA said its lawyers told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Globalstar used only specialized, expensive enterprise access points designed to minimize interference, designed only for indoor use, and operating at a small fraction of the radiated power level it seeks authorization to use." Globalstar wants to use its spectrum "more intensively for additional innovative services," said investors who back FCC-proposed rules from November 2013 to let the company provide TLPS in its mobile satellite service spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz and adjacent, unlicensed spectrum at 2473-2483.5 MHz. "Since the deployment of its second-generation MSS constellation, Globalstar has experienced significant growth in its MSS business and expects demand for its satellite services to accelerate further after the completion of its second generation ground infrastructure in 2016," said the investors. Representatives from Beck Mack, Litespeed Management, Steelhead Partners, Vulcan Capital and York Capital Management had meetings with aides to all FCC members other than Mignon Clyburn, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly himself and Chief Mindel De La Torre and others in the International Bureau.