Will that GPS equipment of yours be rendered useless by Broadband wireless service?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The FCC granted a company called LightSquared Subsidiary LLC a waiver to broadcast from 40,000 cell phone towers on a part of the Mobile Satellite Service spectrum (MSS) that is adjacent to GPS signals. These signals will be up to 800 billion times stronger than the GPS signals and will overwhelm the GPS signals that the surveying industry has come to rely on.
Are you aware of this very real threat to your investment in GPS and your livelyhood?
What are you doing about it?
After studies showed disruption and loss of GPS signal within 3000m of these cell towers to mobile Garmin type GPS receiver, Airplane navigation GPS receivers and all types tested, LightSquared modifyed its proposal slightly claiming to temporarily not broadcast very very close to the GPS signal and at full power. The claim that will allow 99% of GPS users to not be affected. While their initial claims that GPS users would not be affected have proven to be unfounded, even if this modified claim were true, Surveyors and those who depend on GPS carrier phase are in the 1% that will be affected.
The money behind this LightSquared proposal is huge and there is a Presidential mandate for universalily available Broadband Internet. This train is really barreling down the track and the opposition from the GPS industry is just one voice against this barrelling, whistling train.
I received an email from American Surveyor this morning that indicated that the public comment period with the FCC has been extended to August 15.
If you have not commented yet please do so.
Below is where you can submit comments:
1. Proceeding 11-109
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding/view?name=11-109
Towards to the top of the page, click "Submit a Filing in 11-109."
2. SAT-MOD-20101118-00239
http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/pleading.do
Please see the instructions on filling your comments at http://www.saveourgps.org/voice-your-concern.aspx.
Additional information on the issue can be found at:
http://www.pnt.gov/interference/lightsquared/
Much more comments are needed. I am amazed at the number of comments actually supporting LightSquared's proposal.
The time for action is now.
- originally posted by Steve Martin, CA PLS, on the CLSA Forum
The comment period was extended to August 15. Please send to both Reps and FCC.
I never thought it would go this far, so I didn't think I needed to get involved. BOY WAS I WRONG!
Absolutely everyone that uses GPS needs to get involved. The main reason that the FCC is leaning towards letting these people have there way, is the lack of comments.
Please take the time to comment, I know I'm going to.
Thank you,
Douglas Casement, PLS
Doug - FCC's reason for approving LightSquared is that
Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC, has his current job because he was a Harvard law-school classmate of Barack Obama as well as being one of the largest bundlers of campaign contributions for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Yes, there is a political factor here, hard as it may be to believe.
Now only 15 months from the 2012 election, the Obama administration is desperate for an economic "success story" to wave around showing how their progressive thinking and efforts made possible LightSquared, which will be touted as a wonderful new platform for commerce which created tens of thousands of jobs and all other kinds of wonderful things.
In this forum on 02 August I explained how LightSquared's "promise" of ubiquitous high-speed internet to rural America is nothing but smoke and mirrors, but it is astounding how successful LightSquared has been in getting elected officials to bite on that sucker bait.
Make your comments to the FCC, but keep in mind that the FCC may not want to be confused by the facts.
Listen to Gavin above - now we have to carry this to the elected officials and the first-responder groups that LightSquared has been working.
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has been pushing the FCC for documents that detail the process through which the FCC has fast-tracked the LightSquared proposal, including the 26 January 2011 conditional waiver that essentially guts decades of sound spectrum management by doing away with the integrated service rule that said that ancillary means ancillary. So far, Chairman Genachowski has told Senator Grassley to "GPS - Go Pound Sand".
GB
Doug - FCC's reason for approving LightSquared is that
For a President who seems stymied at every turn, that guy sure is responsible for a lot... It's rather amazing how many bad things are all Obama's fault. 😉
Richard - It's actually Bush 43's fault
because his FCC messed up the 2008 auctions of the 700 MHz spectrum freed up by the transition to digital TV 😉 . Verizon and AT&T ended up with the bulk of the spectrum sold in those auctions.
Obama is just doing what he can to free us from the stranglehold of the Verizon/AT&T duopoly. Naturally, no good deed ever goes unpunished.
Seriously, the current mess is a result of letting guys without a technical clue run technical policy. The FCC does not listen to its engineers when it comes to policy.
The Obama administration issued the National Broadband Plan and tasked the FCC with meeting its objectives, including repurposing a significant amount of spectrum from underutilized space-to-earth service to wireless broadband. There's nothing inherently wrong with that as long as the benefits outweigh the costs. And we all want to watch Lady Gaga videos while driving to the job site.
A clever speculator sees an opportunity, gets a place at the table by picking up a struggling company with space-to-earth spectrum, and figures he can get big waivers from the FCC if he represents his intentions as being aligned with the FCC's assigned objectives.
The FCC wants this speculator to succeed because it will help them succeed. Then all good judgement and any shred of impartiality go sailing out the window.
GB
> Be great if a herd of surveyors picketed outside the FCC with rovers...
Let's GO!!!!!
Richard - It's actually Bush 43's fault
I have been contacting Kay Baily Hutchison and she has sent me updates that she is attempting to grasp hold of the situation and stop any interference with GPS.
She is the Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov
The main problem is much as Glenn is saying, the FCC is out of control again, just as with Television, Land Lines, and are manipulating things.
Just think of all the electronic devices that have become useless in the last 10years.
Most everything except radio.
Richard - It's actually Bush 43's fault
It's not FCC driving this, it's the market.
Thankfully the FCC is vigilant about preventing
us from seeing Janet Jackson's mammary system on TV!
GB
I love the smell of C4 and smoldering steel towers in the morning.
;.)
What are you doing about it?
I sold all of my GPS equipment 3 weeks ago. It is worth nothing in the US. Buyers were in Asia and Australia.
This is a one sided battle that won't be won by a letter writting campaign.
Sorry, but surveyors and GIS are collateral damage in this one.
I consider myself lucky to have been able to use a system for 20 years that was originally built as a military weapons guidance system.
It might be a good time to invest in a first class robot. I hear that they can scan pretty well now.
Jim
> I love the smell of C4 and smoldering steel towers in the morning.
>
> ;.)
ME TOO! 😉
LET'S GO!!!!
> What are you doing about it?
>
> I sold all of my GPS equipment 3 weeks ago. It is worth nothing in the US. Buyers were in Asia and Australia.
>
> Jim
Jim, how did you reach those markets e-bay?
Sold on ebay.
Surveyors in the rest of the world are not affected by the insanity going on here.
