New LightSquared GPS plan faces attack, uncertainty

The coast is not yet clear for LightSquared's hybrid satellite-LTE network despite the company's announcement that it has found a solution to interference with GPS.

The startup's new proposal, in which it would step away from the frequencies that it said cause the most interference with GPS (Global Positioning System), still needs regulatory approval and hasn't even been presented to the Federal Communications Commission yet. Meanwhile, one of the company's harshest critics slammed the plan as "bizarre."

The Coalition to Save Our GPS, which includes GPS vendors Garmin, Magellan and Trimble, as well as FedEx, Caterpiller, the Air Transport Association and others, dismissed LightSquared's claims of having solved the interference problem. "Confining its operation to the lower MSS band still interferes with many critical GPS receivers in addition to the precision receivers that even LightSquared concedes will be affected," the group said in a statement attributed to Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble. "It is time for LightSquared to move out of the MSS band."