Wednesday, April 6, 2011

GPS Threatened by Wireless Broadband

The thought of a newcomer to the broadband market endeavoring to create a new, nation-wide network of wireless broadband service on a previously unused spectrum is quite spectacular. It's encouraging to see new innovation continuing to take place in an already mature and competitive market. But that is exactly what LightSquared intends to do. So, why are there lawsuits pending to stop them?

The spectrum that LightSquared intends to use is very near the commonly-used spectrum for GPS signal and devices. While the FCC and LightSquared both contend that there will be no ill effects, GPS companies such as Trimble Navigation Ltd. and organizations such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association fear that the nearby signal emitted by terrestrial devices would carry a far greater intensity than that of satellite-driven GPS, and therefore cause signal interruption for the GPS devices.

If the nay-sayers are right, up to 40% of the commercial and private aircraft flying today could find themselves with compromised navigation systems due to the signal bleed. Moreover, the majority of public safety responders such as fire trucks, police, and rescue operations will be affected. Municipal departments becoming more and more reliant on GPS technology could be affected. Even simple, private GPS units in consumers' cars might begin to experience signal outages when competing with the nearby signal of LightSquared's network.

But for me, here is what the problem boils down to: whose problem is this? The spectrum in question is not "new" per se. It's been commercially available, even if largely unused, since before the GPS services became ubiquitous. Did the manufacturers of such devices take the lack of nearby signal for granted as they developed their products? Was noise-canceling and fine-tuning overlooked on the presumption that competing signal did not exist at the time? And, if it could be argued that it is this lack of engineering that threatens GPS, not the newcomer to the wireless market, then what role does the FCC need to play in protecting the already-deployed devices?

Signal competition is nothing new to fixed wireless broadband. Accel Networks has had to cope with this reality in the existing spectrum of wireless signal. Our specially engineered antennas are carefully provisioned to provide excellent reception in the harshest signal environments. Are GPS manufacturers exempt from such engineering challenges?

Labels: Fixed Wireless Broadband, spectrum, wireless signal