Garmin expects to work for the next five years on developing and implementing design and component part modifications needed to ensure its products work with Ligado's proposed LTE network, the GPS company said in a filing Wednesday in FCC docket 12-340. Garmin said its settlement agreement with Ligado (formerly LightSquared) (see 1512180020) includes a five-year transition period for Ligado's handset power limits so Garmin engineers "could work to accommodate Ligado's proposed network and ... address concerns over interference with GPS." Much of the work will involve circuit design, printed circuit board layout and testing, Garmin said. It said Ligado should similarly work "with others in the navigation industry to establish realistic timetables since those companies will face their own unique challenges in making changes."

Trimble formally signed onto LightSquared's proposal that LightSquared will give up any terrestrial plans for 1545-1555 MHz as part of a means to ending objections to the proposed LightSquared L-band terrestrial broadband service. In a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340, LightSquared said it and Trimble signed an agreement that mirrors similar agreements inked with Deere and Garmin last year that also had LightSquared ending its 2013 legal claims against them (see 1512180020). "It completes the picture," LightSquared counsel Gerard Waldron of Covington & Burling told us. "We can say we have final settlement agreements with the largest GPS companies, the end of litigation is upon us, these disputes have been solved." Unlike past agreements with Deere and Garmin, Waldron said, the Trimble agreement also has it and LightSquared telling the Transportation Department there's no need for the agency to test upper spectrum compatibility issues as part of the agency's pending GPS/LTE compatibility study, given the technical limits the satellite company has agreed to with the three GPS companies. Under the Trimble agreement, LightSquared said it will seek dismissal with prejudice of its suit against Trimble and the U.S. GPS Industry Council. LightSquared also agreed through January 2020 to keep records of base station activations involving use of 1627.5 MHz and higher and allow Trimble access to those records as a means of supporting resolution of any interference issues. The agreement also said Trimble, like Deere and Garmin, doesn't object to LightSquared's deployment of its terrestrial network under the technical specifications laid out in the agreements -- those specifications including foregoing terrestrial use of the 1545-1555 band. It also said it echoes LightSquared's call for the FCC to put out a public notice seeking comment on the GPS company agreements (see 1512310016). Trimble didn't comment. In a statement, LightSquared said the agreement "not only addresses pending policy issues related to new LightSquared's spectrum but also supports a regulatory path forward." LightSquared declined to comment on the status of its own commissioned study by Roberson and Associates of possible interference between its broadband uplink and downlink signals and neighboring spectrum GPS signals.

LightSquared's agreements with GPS companies Deere and Garmin and its license modification applications before the FCC obviate any need for a Transportation Department Adjacent Band Compatibility Study, LightSquared officials told DOT, FCC, Federal Aviation Administration and NTIA representatives in a meeting described in a commission ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340. The LightSquared agreements and application have it relinquishing terrestrial use of 1545-1555 MHz in its LTE network while seeking shared use of 10 MHz of spectrum used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (see 1512310016). DOT workshops about the adjacent band study helped lead to the details of the coexistence agreements by helping define issues "important to both the DOT and the GPS companies," LightSquared said. That 1545-1555 MHz buffer and other license modifications should protect all other GPS companies' devices and services, LightSquared said, while any aviation concerns will be covered by a LightSquared-proposed condition that it defer to FAA standards. At the meeting, LightSquared also pressed the FCC to issue a public notice by late spring on the coexistence agreements and license modification applications so as to get input from other GPS-related businesses. Among those representing LightSquared was company board member and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

LightSquared has dropped GPS receiver maker Trimble from the list of defendants in its 2013 lawsuit brought against Deere, Garmin and Trimble and the U.S. GPS Industry Council (see 1311040060) after they raised concerns that LightSquared's LTE network could interfere with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum space. Those concerns led to the FCC's revoking LightSquared’s terrestrial spectrum license, ultimately forcing it into bankruptcy. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman of Manhattan on Monday signed an order granting LightSquared a stipulation of voluntary dismissal without prejudice. The court filing gave no details about the confidential agreement with Trimble, except that each side will bear its own costs. The Trimble agreement follows an agreement between LightSquared and Deere that has LightSquared foregoing use of 1545-1555 MHz in its LTE plans (see 1512080022). In a joint statement Tuesday, LightSquared and Trimble said they "agreed to work together with the relevant government agencies to implement a mutually acceptable compromise approach to resolution of the outstanding issues relating to use of New LightSquared’s spectrum. Pending further discussions with the agencies, the parties have agreed to maintain confidentiality with respect to the details of the proposed compromise approach.”

Garmin continues to voice worries on GPS interference from operations in adjacent bands. General Counsel Andrew Etkind met with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and with Commissioner Ajit Pai chief of staff Matthew Berry, the GPS company said in ex parte filings posted Wednesday in docket 12-340 (see here and here). Garmin said Etkind talked up a proposed Transportation Department study of adjacent band interference -- which was heavily criticized by LightSquared, which wants to operate a wireless broadband network in adjacent spectrum (see 1510160022) -- and provided copies of GPS Innovation Alliance testimony submitted earlier this month in a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on improving federal spectrum systems. In that testimony, the GPSIA said using satellite spectrum for broadband poses big technical challenges since mobile broadband uplink transmissions "can be billions of times stronger" than low-power transmissions such as used by a Global Navigation Satellite System, and "attempts to attribute GNSS interference issues mainly to poor receiver design are misguided." GPSIA also said receiver regulation would "impede innovation," and "a more straightforward approach" would be to group similar spectrum uses together -- "a 'zoning' approach to spectrum management as opposed to a 'good fences make good neighbors' approach that requires the FCC to engage in extensive rule making and standards development." For GPS, GPSIA said, that would mean "avoiding authorization of high powered uses in this band now or in the future."

Air Force development of a GPS operational control system that would replace the existing ground system is four years behind and $1.1 billion over budget, said a GAO study released Wednesday. While the Air Force has contingency plans for maintaining the GPS constellation even while operational control system work goes on, those plans "may not deliver the full range of GPS capability," such as the effort to develop GPS cards that can receive the military code signal, thus helping operate in jammed environments, the GAO report said. That military code capability won't be seen until mid 2019 at the earliest, even though the Defense Department has plans to generally buy only military code-capable user equipment after FY 2017, the GAO said, saying the Air Force should seek outside guidance and expertise to help address the systemic problems. Operational control system development "has been mired in development difficulties resulting in steady cost growth and schedule delays [and] has yet to turn the corner on resolving the problems that have affected the program since development began in 2010," GAO said. "Five years into what was originally estimated to be a five-year effort, [development] is still roughly five years away from completion." While many GPS satellites have lived beyond their expected lifespans, a modernized GPS system -- including the operational control system as well as GPS III satellites -- "is critical," and the operational control system development delays will take longest to address, GAO said. "Those delays are likely to pose significant risks to sustaining the GPS constellation, and consequently, delivering GPS capability to the military community." The GAO report recommends -- and the Department of Defense agrees in its response in the report -- an independent task force of other defense agencies and military services be convened and give guidance on tackling the underlying problems. The report and DOD also agreed on keeping members of that task force as a management advisory team to help in regular analyses of defects, on developing better cost and schedule estimates based on past performance of the operational control system development, and on a system for ensuring information from the operational control system assessment is used in seeing if further program changes are needed. But the DOD partially disagreed with a GAO recommendation that military services be allowed to assess the progress of military GPS user equipment (MGUE) design before committing test and procurement resources. Contractors are expected to deliver MGUE prototypes soon, well before any such assessment could be done, and would require contractors halt their current development work, which could lead to delays of months, it said. Military services aren't bound to buy any MGUE cards until an operational user evaluation report is done, and the Air Force will be responsible for MGUE card development until any performance deficiencies found in that evaluation report are fixed, the DOD said.