Ligado's LTE Critics Airing Concerns in FCC Meetings

Aviation, hydrological and meteorological critics of Ligado's LTE proposal have been pressing their case on the FCC's 8th floor, according to ex parte filings (see here and here) posted Wednesday in docket RM-11681. The filings recapped meetings involving Jessica Almond, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Erin McGrath, an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, with representatives from Penn State University's Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, the American Meteorological Society, the National Hydrologic Warning Council, Aviation Spectrum Resources, and weather and climate policy consultancy Narayan Strategy. According to the twin filings, Penn State and others said sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band poses notable risks to the U.S. extreme event communication, forecast and warning capabilities, and that more research is needed. They also criticized Ligado's cloud-based content delivery network proposal as unacceptable since it lacks guarantees all current users of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration information will continue to have uninterrupted access to the real-time data regardless of access to the internet or power. They also warned of dozens of private and public users of NOAA data who require direct reception in the 1675-1680 MHz and 1675-1690 MHz bands unprotected since the Ligado proposal would only protect federal users from interference. And in a separate filing Tuesday in the docket, Garmin said Ligado's exclusion zone proposal isn't adequate for certified aviation devices and suggested the FCC look to the Federal Aviation Administration to set up the best course for interference protection. Garmin said an analysis by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics indicated the size of exclusion zones would necessarily vary based on operational scenarios. The company also said even if the right-size exclusion zones could be defined, there's no agreement on determining the power limits that would apply to the thousands of Ligado base stations. Ligado didn't comment Wednesday.