GPS signals might be safe for a while. http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ves-falcone-few-options-to-salvage-value.html
Leave the politics out, please
Leave the politics out, please
light squared
- Thread starter Marc Bergmueller
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Another Obama administration blunder. Just kidding. I don't know the politics involved, but somebody made a really stupid decision to let this plan ever get off the ground. As a GPS user while boating, flying, driving, and geocaching I will be very pleased when the threat posed by Light Squared disappears entirely.
The blunder was in some dude taking it upon himself to grant them the right to tentatively go ahead. Had that dude or dudette consulted instead of shooting from the hip, it would have been no issue.. would have been dead at concept.
I am happy to have read that this morning in the paper too. Sad for Light Squared that they spent a bunch of dollars on a guy's word that should not have been given.. If they have proper documentation, they may be able to recover that money from us, the taxpayers..
I am happy to have read that this morning in the paper too. Sad for Light Squared that they spent a bunch of dollars on a guy's word that should not have been given.. If they have proper documentation, they may be able to recover that money from us, the taxpayers..
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]it was a train wreck from the get go...hedge fund manager saw a loophole (ask for and get low power spectrum, then appeal for a change to high power and do that, somehow? Money?? Lots of it?) to exploit and did not do his homework...You simply can NOT put a slew of 60 watt transmitters in the same band with very low power GPS and airplane avionics and DOD/Spook satellites.
Should have never been "approved" by the FCC in the first place.[/FONT][/FONT]
Should have never been "approved" by the FCC in the first place.[/FONT][/FONT]
Indeed. Imagine looking for a 65 watt light bulb that is 25000 KMs away, and then someone turns on a 1000 watt bulb right next to you. And they try to say, don't worry, the light is a different color.....
Yea right, that'll work.
Another example of regulators becoming lap dogs to big corporations. Just they went too far this time. Elected officials from both political parties are guilty of allowing this.
I also bet that LightSquared's owner, Philip Falcone, didn't need his lawyers to warn him that getting permission to convert low power satellite-to-earth spectrum to high power terrestrial spectrum and installing 40,000 high power transmitters all over the country was no sure thing.
So why did Falcone take the gamble? Because satellite spectrum costs much less than terrestrial spectrum. He paid the government about $2 billion for the spectrum. The bill would have been more like $10 billion for terrestrial spectrum. That's what AT&T and Verizon pay. If he had pulled off this bum's rush on the FCC, he would have saved $8 billion since there was no charge for the conversion. He gambled and lost.
While the FCC sure looks silly for ever allowing it, they did only grant a conditional approval that required proof that Lightsquared didn't interfere with GPS. Even Lightsquared's tests showed that it did. Pilots, boaters and - the big dog - DOD deserve a pat on the back.
Carl
I also bet that LightSquared's owner, Philip Falcone, didn't need his lawyers to warn him that getting permission to convert low power satellite-to-earth spectrum to high power terrestrial spectrum and installing 40,000 high power transmitters all over the country was no sure thing.
So why did Falcone take the gamble? Because satellite spectrum costs much less than terrestrial spectrum. He paid the government about $2 billion for the spectrum. The bill would have been more like $10 billion for terrestrial spectrum. That's what AT&T and Verizon pay. If he had pulled off this bum's rush on the FCC, he would have saved $8 billion since there was no charge for the conversion. He gambled and lost.
While the FCC sure looks silly for ever allowing it, they did only grant a conditional approval that required proof that Lightsquared didn't interfere with GPS. Even Lightsquared's tests showed that it did. Pilots, boaters and - the big dog - DOD deserve a pat on the back.
Carl
But now Falcone may have decided to try $$$$ to the other party. Today's Wall Street Journal has two pieces about how the Lightsquared denial is the latest example of Obama's over regulation and war on free enterprise.
I assume terrestrial frequency is available today with no GPS problem if Falcone were willing to pay the going $10 billion price. Of course, playing by the rules would hurt his hedge fund investment thesis. We need to keep watching that the FCC isn't ultimately forced to accommodate Falcone in a way that messes up GPS.
But to get off the politics, this was a win for us.. Boaters (and pilots) contacted their congressman who took a moment off from their partisan war to apply some pressure on the FCC. Industry players like Garmin helped too but corporations don't vote (at least for now).
We should remember this victory when issues like Florida anchoring, unworkable life jacket rules, copper bottom paint, or even marine sanitation changes appear unstoppable.
Carl
I assume terrestrial frequency is available today with no GPS problem if Falcone were willing to pay the going $10 billion price. Of course, playing by the rules would hurt his hedge fund investment thesis. We need to keep watching that the FCC isn't ultimately forced to accommodate Falcone in a way that messes up GPS.
But to get off the politics, this was a win for us.. Boaters (and pilots) contacted their congressman who took a moment off from their partisan war to apply some pressure on the FCC. Industry players like Garmin helped too but corporations don't vote (at least for now).
We should remember this victory when issues like Florida anchoring, unworkable life jacket rules, copper bottom paint, or even marine sanitation changes appear unstoppable.
Carl
The FCC has for the last several years has chosen to be ignorant of the "science" and have sided with the $$$$...see BPL (Broadband over powerlines), even this month they will not step up and say this technology just does not play well with the infrastructure we currently have in spite of numerous tests (ala lightsquared) that proves it fails.
Like I said last month, a high school kid with basic physics knows you can not do what Falcone wanted to do, and still have GPS work as it was designed. terrestrial vs satellite are as different as night and day....He knew that, and was betting big, that he could get away with it, and blame the problems elsewhere.
He is still trying, and has not gone away...he has too much in the pot to leave it...he'll be back and let's hope the FCC and the NTIA stands firm.
Like I said last month, a high school kid with basic physics knows you can not do what Falcone wanted to do, and still have GPS work as it was designed. terrestrial vs satellite are as different as night and day....He knew that, and was betting big, that he could get away with it, and blame the problems elsewhere.
He is still trying, and has not gone away...he has too much in the pot to leave it...he'll be back and let's hope the FCC and the NTIA stands firm.
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