Google, WCAI Challenge Globalstar's TLPS Proposal

Critics of Globalstar's planned latest broadband terrestrial low-power service are intensifying TLPS lobbying before the FCC. Ex parte notices from Google and the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) were posted Monday in docket 13-213 indicating representatives met with agency officials to raise TLPS questions. WCAI's filing repeated its contention (see 1511020016) Globalstar failed to show how TLPS "will meet Globalstar's absolute obligation" to protect broadband radio service and educational broadband service operations in adjacent bands. WCAI's filing said it and Sprint representatives met with Edward Smith, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Google in its filing said it met with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and front-line Wheeler staff. While Wi-Fi and other public uses of the unlicensed 2472-2483.5 MHz spectrum "are effectively precluded" because they might interfere with Globalstar's satellite operations above 2484.5, Globalstar's TLPS "is at bottom a proposal for compatible terrestrial and satellite uses of these same frequencies," Google said. So the FCC "should reassess whether public use of Channel 14 ... is possible without harmful interference" to Globalstar's mobile satellite service (MSS) operations, it said. And if they're compatible, Google said, any TLPS approval should wait until after a rulemaking changing the technical rules on general public use of the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. Google also listed a variety of questions it said Globalstar needs to address, including whether Globalstar's TLPS interferes with its own satellite service and what scenarios might require mitigation, and how does its harmful interference concern about public operation of Part 15 devices in channel 14 differ from interference concerns between TLPS and its own MSS. The ex parte filings followed a similar one posted Friday by the Entertainment Software Association, Microsoft, NCTA and Wi-Fi Alliance (see 1512110068). In a statement, Globalstar said that when it filed its petition three years ago, "We knew that our proposed TLPS operations on Channel 14 would have a substantial positive impact on the worsening Wi-Fi congestion happening around the country. While we never proposed TLPS as the only solution, we certainly understood then that it would provide immediate relief while the Commission and the industry continued to consider other possibilities that would take years, if not a decade or more, to come to fruition. Three years later, TLPS still represents the only immediate solution, and our real world demonstrations and deployments this year have entirely exceeded our own expectations regarding the substantial benefits that we can provide to consumers wanting a better mobile broadband experience." Globalstar also said it expects the FCC to finish its review "after the new year."