Ligado Says It's Willing to Trade Tighter OOBE Limits for LTE License Approvals

Arguing Iridium's claims of unacceptable out-of-band-emission (OOBE) levels from its planned LTE deployment (see 1609020029) overstate the dangers to that company's terminals, Ligado said it is open to tighter OOBE restrictions if it means speedy granting of its license modification applications. An ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 11-109 recapped a meeting between company representatives and FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless and International bureau staffers. Ligado said it argued real-world effects of its ancillary terrestrial component plans "would be comfortably in line with the existing spectrum environment." Since Iridium's licensed downlink spectrum is allocated on a secondary, non-interference basis, those downlinks aren't entitled to interference protection from adjacent spectrum users operating under primary allocations, like Ligado, the company said. Ligado said its LTE operating parameters, including an OOBE mask, "have been fixed for years," and its pending license modification applications would actually reduce the level of its user terminal emissions below those parameters. Ligado said its proposed operating parameters fall in line "with the broader operating environment in the spectrum adjacent to Iridium's downlinks," including more than five million of mobile satellite service mobile earth terminals that are allowed to uplink at power levels five to 10,000 times higher than Ligado's LTE terminals. Ligado also said the odds it would agree to more OOBE level reductions rise "if certain flawed assumptions underlying Iridium's ... technical showing were adjusted to reflect more accurate, suitable and typical values." The filing also included a synopsis of numerous technical critiques of Iridium's assertions. Iridium didn't comment Thursday.