LightSquared said Wednesday that test results, conducted by an Alcatel-Lucent lab, demonstrated that LightSquared is making progress on the interference issue and the company was now “well on its way” to demonstrating that GPS interference concerns have been resolved.
GPS interference solutions developed by three private companies were tested – Javad GNSS, PCTel and Partron. The JAVAD fix, for example, consists of a ceramic filter followed by a series of surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters.
Alcatel-Lucent inked a deal in 2009 to develop satellite base station subsystems (SBSS) for the company that was then known as SkyTerra, which became LightSquared after hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners acquired it in 2010, observes Fierce Wireless.
LightSquared also said that three additional top-tier, high-precision GPS manufacturers — which are all members of the Coalition to Save Our GPS, a group opposed to LightSquared’s plans — have also developed solutions that have been tested at the lab.
The Coalition to Save Our GPS released the following statement (pdf):
“It’s important to keep in mind that these are LightSquared-sponsored tests separate from the ongoing, independent testing being conducted under the auspices of the NTIA, and are simply one input into an overall analysis of the effect of LightSquared’s planned operations on critical GPS uses. The results of the NTIA-supervised tests of consumer and general navigation devices are expected to be available in mid-December, followed by further government-sponsored testing of high-precision GPS equipment next year.”
Meanwhile, LightSquared and FreedomPop have signed a wholesale network agreement offer free broadband and voice services to all Americans,.
FreedomPop is spearheaded by Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype, and his venture capital firm Atomico. The company will launch in 2012 with its ultimate objective to ensure that every American has access to fast, free and convenient communication services. FreedomPop will initially target underserved markets.
No word on whether butter cookies are also included in the offering, says TechCrunch.
LightSquared, the troubled satphone venture, said it expects guidance from the FCC by year’s end on its proposed terrestrial wireless network. The FCC may request changes, such as deploying the network in stages or avoiding the placement of antennas in certain locations, according to Michael Montemarano, LightSquared’s chief financial officer.
The augmented Starfire GPS signal includes orbit and clock corrections that are transmitted via Inmarsat satellite links, to Starfire receivers (although its relative position seems to have shifted in later charts).
Lightsquared & Sprint announced a sharing agreement this July. Montemarano said the company’s deal with Sprint Nextel was to have a deployable 5×5 MHz block of spectrum, which was supposed to be met in September, but was deferred to December because of the interference issue. “Now we have to have a 10×10 MHz [block] by year-end or we go back to the table with Sprint,” he said.
LightSquared hopes to provide terrestrial nationwide wireless broadband network with a backbone of more than 30,000 Sprint cell towers, althought the frequency is adjacent to GPS frequencies in the “L band” at 1.6 GHz. When out of terrestrial reach, dual-mode phones could connect to the satellite at 200-300 Kbps.
Given a conditional waiver to go ahead by the FCC this January, the Virginia company has been trying to work out interference issues with a prickly GPS community.
LightSquared said that it has enough cash to operate through the first quarter of 2012 but it currently is unable to raise more money because of uncertainty from the FCC regarding the company’s interference problem with high-precision GPS receivers, reports Fierce Wireless.
Related Satellite phone stories on Dailywireless include; Lightsquared: A Hardware Solution, Lightsquared Files Official FCC Report, More Testing for Lightsquared, Lightsquared: Another Plan, Lightsquared & Sprint Announce Sharing Agreement, Lightsquared Files Official FCC Report , Lightsquared: Plan “B”, Lightsquared: Lawmakers Skeptical, Lightsquared + Sprint Deal Done?, Lightsquared Gets 2-week Extension, Ergen Likely Got TerreStar, Charlie Ergen’s Spectacular Triple Play, Lightsquared Interference: No Immediate Fix?, LightSquared: GPS Interference Found, Lightsquared: Plan B from Outer Space?, Harbinger: 59MHz or What?. Time Warner Cable + Lightstream?, Lightsquared Signs Cricket Wireless, Another Rumor: Lightsquared + Sprint?, Lightsquared + Sprint?, Charlie’s Big Play, LTE Spectrum: It’s War, Lightsquared: What GPS Interference?, Harbinger Sells Inmarsat Shares, FCC Green Lights Lightsquared, LightSquared: In Trouble?, Lightsquared Unfurled
