Genachowski Defends LightSquared Waiver Process in Letter to Grassley
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski defended in a May 31 letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the process behind the International Bureau waiver granted to LightSquared in January that allows it to offer terrestrial-only services. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member had requested information on the process and any FCC communications about the waiver decision (CD May 18 p9). The Chairman’s letter didn’t address the requested FCC communications involving the decision.
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Genachowski reiterated that the FCC will “not permit LightSquared to begin commercial service without first resolving the Commission’s concerns about potential widespread harmful interference to GPS devices.” As required by the Jan. 26 FCC waiver, LightSquared is working with other stakeholders to determine the seriousness of interference concerns. A final report on the study is due June 15.
The FCC and NTIA and will review the June 15 report and establish a public comment cycle, Genachowski said. The FCC will then consider all viewpoints and technical evidence from the report and filed comments, he said. LightSquared won’t be able to begin commercial service until all “GPS interference concerns have been resolved,” said Genachowski.
Genachowski took issue with Grassley’s description of the waiver order as giving LightSquared access to spectrum next to GPS and that the agency acted in an accelerated timetable in granting the waiver. The waiver order “was not the trigger to permit LightSquared access to the spectrum in the band adjacent to GPS” because LightSquared and its predecessors have had access to the spectrum since 1995, said Genachowski. A March 2010 order that allowed Harbinger Capital Partners to buy SkyTerra, eventually leading to LightSquared’s creation, discusses plans to build a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network with the terrestrial component covering 90 percent of the U.S., he said.
The January International Bureau order “merely conditionally” waived the FCC’s integrated service rule that requires users of mobile satellite service/ancillary terrestrial component spectrum to have the ability to connect to satellite service, he said. “It should be no surprise to anyone involved in the LightSquared matter that the company was planning for some time to deploy a major terrestrial network in the spectrum adjacent to GPS,” he said. The waiver “reflects the continued commitment of Commission staff to work thoughtfully and carefully through the various interference issues that have arisen,” said Genachowski.
The letter didn’t satisfy Grassley. “The FCC letter doesn’t provide the information I requested,” he said in an email. “I asked for the materials to shed light on agency procedures. The lack of transparency in this case raises questions about whether the FCC is handling a major piece of public property the way it should be treated. The FCC needs to comply with this request to build trust in the way it handles the public’s business.” The FCC declined to comment on Grassley’s email. Grassley is one of several lawmakers that has expressed misgivings about the coming service and the process by which the waiver was granted.
LightSquared added its support for Genachowski’s letter. “Notably, the FCC’s letter makes the history of this issue clear -- that we have been authorized to deploy the network we are deploying for a number of years,” said Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared executive vice president-government affairs, in an email. “Obviously, we continue to be committed to seeing through the cooperative testing process in order to ensure GPS interference concerns are reviewed and addressed.”