You may not be aware of a threat to GPS use from a recent FCC action that would allow a company called LightSquared to expand its use of terrestrial broadband. ACSM has filed a statement with FCC participating in the Save Our GPS Coalition. I am sharing a “sample” letter. Please customize it as you see fit and send to your U. S. Senators and U. S. Representative.
Thank you very much for your help.
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The Honorable ___________ April 18, 2011
________________ Building
Washington, D.C.
Re: FCC File No. SAT-MOD-20101118-00239
Dear ______________,
I have serious misgivings about the FCC granting LightSquared LLC conditional approval for a nationwide 4G-LTE wireless broadband network. Testing by GPS technology leaders, Garmin and Trimble Navigation, demonstrate that LightSquared’s technology would likely interfere with GPS receivers, degrading their performance at best and completely jamming them in the worst case scenario.
The DOD, FAA, DHS, NASA, DOI, DOT, DOC, and the Professional Land Surveying and Engineering professions, have all expressed serious reservations about this plan by LightSquared LLC to build 40,000 ground stations in the U.S. that could cause widespread interference to GPS signals. This ground stations will transmit signals immediately adjacent to the GPS L1 frequency at more than one billion (1,000,000,000) times the strength of the GPS signal.
High-precision GPS equipment used by land surveyors, civil engineers, farmers, and other professionals costing thousands of dollars per receiver would be more adversely affected than the consumer GPS devices given their more sensitive design. Literally, tens of thousands of high-precision GPS receivers are used in the United States. GPS technology has transformed the way American’s have built and managed our infrastructure, adding a tremendous level of efficiency to the design, construction, and maintenance of roads, bridges, commercial properties, residential subdivisions, parks, farms, golf courses and emergency response.
The FCC must make clear, and the NTIA must ensure, that LightSquared’s license modification is contingent on the outcome of the mandated study unequivocally demonstrating that there is no interference to GPS. The study must be comprehensive, objective, and based on correct assumptions about existing GPS uses rather than theoretical possibilities. Given the substantial pre-existing investment in GPS systems and infrastructure, and the critical nature of GPS applications, the results of the study must conclusively demonstrate there is no risk of interference.
Every mobile phone using LightSquared’s service becomes a potential jamming device for GPS receivers in its immediate vicinity. Let’s hope the GPS receiver jammed isn’t the one responding to your 911 call!
Senators Pat Roberts and Ben Nelson have recently sent out a joint public letter to senate colleagues urging action on this matter to protect our Global Positioning System. This situation has the potential of becoming a tremendous public safety issue and an economical disaster.
Yours truly,
_____________________