Globalstar Returns Fire at Microsoft TLPS Criticisms

Hammered by criticism from the electronic gaming industry springing from a Microsoft study, Globalstar fired back Friday, saying the Microsoft data are "biased, unreliable and should be accorded no weight." Satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar told us the Globalstar/Microsoft back-and-forth "is a game of he said/she said," with dueling studies being "par for the course" in hotly contested proceedings. Regardless, Farrar said, the likelihood the FCC might act on Globalstar's TLPS application this year looks increasingly slim.

Microsoft's study that pointed to interference to wireless game console controllers coming from Globalstar's terrestrial low-power broadband service (TLPS) (see 1609140038) was "fundamentally flawed" and the results "provide no useful results and ... cannot be relied on as a valid demonstration of the impact of TLPS on the Xbox 360S in the real world," Roberson & Associates said in an analysis included in the satellite company's filing Friday in docket 13-213. Roberson said the Microsoft Xbox 360S test results can't be generalized to other gaming systems. Globalstar said the software maker's test results "contain such blatant methodological flaws that they should be disregarded" by the FCC. The tech company didn't comment. Numerous parties in the electronic gaming community also cited the Microsoft study in their TLPS critiques (see 1609160070).

The Globalstar filing also included a rival Xbox 360S test done by AT4 Wireless, that the satellite company said indicated "only under the most unrealistic and extreme testing scenarios" does Microsoft show any TLPS effects on Xbox operations. It said the tech provider's test looks to have been designed so TLPS would fail, with its equipment, environment and test parameters "unrepresentative of real-world operating conditions." Globalstar said the AT4 testing showed even when four TLPS access points are operating simultaneously on all 902.11 channels at once and only 18 feet apart, there was no discernable impact on button press success rates.

Roberson said the flaws in the Microsoft study include that there was no specificity about antenna characteristics, test tool and protocol of the Wi-Fi devices, nor was there any information about the distance between the Wi-Fi devices and Xbox, though accompanying photos indicate they "were extremely close to one another and do not represent even worst-case real-world network deployments." It also criticized the testing for using a 360S, introduced in 2005. Microsoft earlier this year said it was discontinuing the Xbox 360.

Since the FCC has more-pressing wireless issues before it, including LTE-U/Wi-Fi sharing and the broadcast incentive auction, it seems increasingly likely the agency will just sit on the Globalstar NPRM until next year and a new administration, Farrar said. "We are just running out of time" in Chairman Tom Wheeler's administration, he said. "Is it going to get to the top of the pile before there is a change of commissioners?"

Globalstar has been heavily lobbying Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (see 1609080073), but those talks may not be going anywhere, Farrar said, pointing to the company filing urging the FCC to "adopt the final order placed on circulation ... in May." Since that month, Globalstar has discussed such issues with the agency as exclusion zones (see 1608240063) and Administrative Procedure Act compliance (see 1608080060). Globalstar and O'Rielly's office didn't comment Friday.