Wi-Fi Alliance's TLPS Opposition About Trying To Scotch Competition, Globalstar Says

Stifling competition is the real reason behind the Wi-Fi Alliance's opposition to Globalstar's proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), Globalstar said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-213. It responded to a Wi-Fi Alliance filing posted Thursday in which it said Globalstar's interoperability tests were inadequate and the proceeding should be closed (see 1510160032). On the contrary, Globalstar said, it "has focused on and performed all of the technical work necessary to demonstrate that TLPS is compatible with other unlicensed services." While the Wi-Fi Alliance was invited to take part in testing, the group observed bits of a Globalstar demonstration at the FCC Technology Experience Center in March and didn't attend lab testing, the company said: "The Alliance continues its strategy of complaining from afar without adding any meaningful evidence to the record." Along with testing its TLPS in Chicago over the summer, Globalstar said it also deployed it in a District of Columbia middle school. "Given the tremendous potential consumer benefits that TLPS offers ... why is the Alliance now demanding that the FCC end this proceeding?" Globalstar asked. "The only parties that would gain from terminating this proceeding are, unsurprisingly, the entrenched and powerful members of the Alliance who seek to prevent an innovative alternative to their own service offerings." Wi-Fi Alliance didn't comment.