LightSquared threatens legal action if FCC blocks network operation

Start-up wireless carrier LightSquared threatened litigation if the Federal Communications Commission does not clear it to operate a network of up to 40,000 cell towers the GPS industry claims will interfere with GPS receivers.

Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared's vice president of regulatory affairs and public policy, said that any interference with high-precision GPS receivers from the company's planned network results from the fact that those receivers "look" into the adjacent frequency band. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Carlisle said that GPS manufacturers have ignored standards developed by the Defense Department to block reception of transmissions from adjacent bands. Martin Harriman, vice president of ecosystem development and satellite business for LightSquared, said that manufacturer Javad GNSS has developed a signal filter that will mitigate interference problems with high-precision GPS receivers.