Globalstar Demos Still not Answering Questions About TLPS/Wi-Fi Coexistence, Critics Say
Globalstar's latest terrestrial low-powered broadband service demos still fall short of justifying FCC approval for its proposed TLPS because the company hasn't made clear whether it addressed problems "that rendered previous demonstrations unreliable," said the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Microsoft,…
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NCTA and Wi-Fi Alliance in a joint ex parte filing posted Friday. Globalstar has done pilot demos of its TLPS service in Chicago and at Washington School for Girls in Washington, D.C., pointing to them as evidence it poses no interference threat to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (see 1511190028). In their Friday filing, ESA et al. said previous filings by such parties as NCTA and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group raised numerous red flags about Globalstar's demonstrations, such as running transmitters at notably low power levels, using unrepresentative equipment, testing an 802.11 TLPS implementation when not having committed to using the 802.11 standard and failing to test for TLPS effects on latency or jitter. The ex parte letter recapped a meeting between Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Edward Smith and members of the ESA group. During the meeting, the letter said, ESA et al. also said a mitigation plan involving Globalstar addressing interference complaints after the fact "is unworkable." In a statement Friday, Globalstar Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Barbee Ponder said, "The benefits of TLPS are being shown daily at the Washington School for Girls, as the students there now have a wireless network utilizing substantially more spectrum than would otherwise be available. Representatives from numerous Commission offices have attended this deployment and observed these benefits that have been recognized recently by public interest groups. Those with nothing more than competitive interests at stake have no reason to ever do anything other than complain."