LightSquared Test Plans Redundant, Use Questionable Criteria, GPSIA Says

LightSquared's compatibility testing is duplicative of federal Transportation Department efforts, and its methodology is questionable, the GPS Innovation Alliance said in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 12-340. The filing is in response to testing LightSquared began in July of possible interference between its broadband uplink and downlink signals and neighboring spectrum GPS signals (see 1507160045). While LightSquared has solicited feedback from the GPS industry on the testing, being done by Roberson and Associates, GPS Innovation Alliance said it "will focus its technical efforts" on the DOT assessment of adjacent band compatibility issues, the draft test plan of which is expected to be released soon. The LightSquared testing "would reinvent any number of test methods and acceptable criteria" that have been sent out by the ITU and the International Civil Aviation Authority among others, and an issue of a sole service provider "is not an appropriate place for domestic modification of established international standards," GPSIA said. In a separate filing in the docket posted Monday, the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association said the FCC should go through "careful deliberation regarding the options and their consequences" before allowing any sharing of the 1675-1695 MHz band by meteorological and hydrological users and broadband. LightSquared's plans would have it using a downlink at 1670-1675 MHz, while NTIA is looking at 1675-1695 as the subject of a possible auction in the future, AMS and NWA said. "The choice of which spectrum bands are shared should not endanger the reliability or the effectiveness of public safety meteorological and hydrological data flow" from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites, and thus should not happen "unless it can be confirmed that no loss or interruption of the critical life-saving operations currently using it will occur," the two said. In a filing to be posted in docket 12-340, LightSquared said Tuesday that since the initial DOT testing plan was released in December 2012, "so far not a single device has yet been tested, nor has any end date of testing been identified." It also said GPSIA's questioning of the standards Roberson is following in its testing "is wholly incorrect" and that the organization "provides no specific criticisms of any of the standards proposed by Roberson that would allow substantiation of such a claim." The testing "needs to proceed in a timely way in order to provide relevant input ... and will do so notwithstanding GPSIA’s failure to contribute," LightSquared said. In a separate filing to be posted in the docket, it said it "agrees that any sharing of this spectrum must ensure that NOAA and the National Weather Service can carry out the critical functions described by AMS and NWA." Citing studies done by Alion Science & Technology filed last year, LightSquared said such spectrum sharing "is technically feasible" and that it "has undertaken additional close study of the spectrum, including services received by non-NOAA entities, and plans to file a further study shortly, providing further assurance that the critical operations described by AMS and NWA can be protected."