Iridium Pushes 1.6 GHz Spectrum Sharing, Criticizes Globalstar TLPS Effort

Iridium Constellation and Globalstar continue to joust over spectrum, with Iridium both criticizing Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) broadband proposal and laying out its case for the FCC instead expanding the 1.6 GHz spectrum that the companies share, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in RM-11697. "Taken together, the pending Iridium and Globalstar requests are about the future" of big low earth orbit mobile satellite service, but while its sharing proposal will boost mobile satellite services growth, Globalstar's push for a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band "would materially diminish the satellite resources available to first responders, critical industry and consumers," Iridium said. Globalstar has been critical of Iridium's sharing push, saying Iridium has no need for the spectrum and raising red flags about signal interference (see 1505180036). "Iridium has no other option for securing additional spectrum" other than the 1.6 GHz band, Iridium said, saying existing Iridium/Globalstar spectrum sharing "has proven to be workable and free from interference to Globalstar." Globalstar had no comment Wednesday.