LightSquared asserts latest GPS tests rigged
- By Defense Systems Staff
- Jan 20, 2012
LightSquared and a former FCC chief engineer said Jan. 18 that the Global Positioning System test devices that were used by the Air Force Space Command on behalf of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee to test the company’s new network were rigged by makers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce “bogus results,” reports Todd Haselton at BGR Media.
The wireless provider, which has been struggling for several years to get approval to build a hybrid terrestrial and satellite-based 4G network, is calling on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to objectively audit testing and apply proposed mitigation standards in the wake of the tests, a company statement said. The FCC ordered the company in 2011 not to use the terrestrial component of its service for fear that it would interfere with GPS signals, notes Richi Jennings at Computerworld.
In regard to the latest round of tests, LightSquared says the tests focused on obsolete technology that is only used in “niche market devices” and that are “least able to withstand potential interference” from wireless networks.