Iridium Again Airs Worries of Ligado Interference Risks

Ligado keeps trying to brush away legitimate interference concerns, such as its proposed terrestrial wireless network posing bigger interference concerns in the band adjacent to Iridium's 1617.775-1626.5 MHz spectrum than current and future satellite operations in the same spectrum do, Iridium said in an FCC docket 11-109 filing posted Thursday. Iridium said Ligado continually tried to chip away at the 2003 ancillary terrestrial component order rules about gating and technical requirements, so Ligado's plan now is far beyond what was envisioned in the ATC rules. It said Ligado is engaged in "pure spectrum arbitrage," because it let its satellite business wither. Iridium also denied Ligado assertions that it inflated the interference risk via worst-case scenarios, saying it used LTE parameters used multiple times in past interference assessments. Ligado in a statement said it has "confidence that the Commission can distinguish between fact and fiction and between the license modification and 1675-1680 MHz auction proceedings." Iridium repeatedly brought up concerns about interference from Ligado's broadband network (see 1706290043 and 1612140061).