Globalstar's TLPS Test 'Falls far Short,' Proceeding Should Be Closed, Wi-Fi Alliance Says

Globalstar's test proving Wi-Fi interoperability with its terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) "falls far short of what might reasonably be expected in a meaningful test," and the FCC should close the proceeding, the Wi-Fi Alliance said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 13-213. While the satellite company has repeatedly pointed to testing it conducted over the summer as demonstrating that its private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band would relieve overall Wi-Fi congestion (see 1510140072 and 1509110018), the test had numerous flaws, the alliance said. They include only using enterprise-class access points, even though most deployed access points are consumer grade, not enterprise class, so the test is useless at predicting the effect on most Wi-Fi devices, the group said. It said the demonstration report also omits key data regarding such issues as power levels for the access points operating on Wi-Fi channels 1, 6 and 11 and TLPS operations on channel 14; as well as load factors for the Wi-Fi and TLPS channels. Accusing Globalstar of doing more demonstrations rather than "cooperative, fully-transparent testing," the alliance said it "has no one but itself to blame for the broader industry's inability make a meaningful assessment of Globalstar's system." Globalstar didn't comment.