DOD Criticizing Ligado Plans, but Company Sees Spectrum Grab
DOD has been raising issues behind the scenes with the FCC to avoid technical or legal review of its arguments against Ligado's license modification applications, and its opposition isn't grounded in data in the docket, said the company in a docket 11-109 filing Thursday to be posted. It includes a June 7 letter to the FCC from then-acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Nov. 18 letter from now-Secretary Mark Esper. DOD opposition "appears to be an attempt to grab spectrum" not allocated to it, Ligado said, saying the lack of public communication on its views "means the DOD lacks any legitimate basis" for opposition.
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DOD letters cite a 2018 National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Timing and Navigation report to the Commerce Department and NTIA urging against the Ligado license modification requests. "There are too many unknowns and the risks are far too great to federal operations to allow Ligado's proposed system to proceed," Esper said. "All independent and scientifically valid testing and technical data shows the potential for widespread disruption and degradation of GPS services from the proposed Ligado system." Esper asked the FCC to reject the sought modifications. He said any proposals for use of the bands adjacent to GPS shouldn't get approval unless they meet transmission power level limits in the Transportation Department's adjacent band compatibility assessment. Shanahan used nearly identical wording. DOD and the FCC didn't comment now.
The DOT study has been before the FCC for 18 months, and the DOD offers nothing new, Ligado said. There's no legal or data basis for applying a 1 dB limit to GPS-adjacent spectrum, and that noise floor metric has never been used for such a purpose "and would cripple the potential of Ligado’s spectrum to advance 5G."
Ligado said DOD has statutory authority to operate GPS, but the FCC has statutory authority to decide how GPS will be protected. It said its agreements with GPS manufacturers, its own testing and the record demonstrate that GPS would be protected. It rejected DOD criticisms of testing done under a cooperative agreement with Ligado at the National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network, which DOD co-sponsors. "That dog won't hunt," Ligado said, saying those cooperative agreements are a regular tool for industry/government cooperation. Ligado recpapped meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel at which it argued that, with its applications pending for four years, the FCC "should end the unreasonable delay" and schedule a vote.
Competitive Carriers Association is pushing the FCC. It cited Pai's calling for a C-band public auction (see 1911180026) and said the 40 MHz of L band could be made available for terrestrial use even more quickly. "Speed matters for 5G," CCA said.