Preventing GPS Interference a Priority, but Finding Use for Adjacent Bands Possible, Garmin Says

Even a small, 1 dB increase in a noise floor can affect GPS accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity "in unexpected or dramatic ways," Garmin said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340. Garmin and LightSquared are at loggerheads over whether LightSquared's planned ground-and-satellite-based LTE broadband network could interfere with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum bands (see 1509090013). The filing summarized a meeting between Scott Burgett, Garmin's director-global navigation satellite system and software technology, and Philip Verveer, Chairman Tom Wheeler's senior counselor. Garmin said it remains focused on protecting global navigation satellite system applications from interference "while potentially exploring ways that currently underutilized spectrum in adjacent bands can be made more productive."