Pentagon Raises Concerns About Lightsquared Wireless

Defense Department and federal transportation officials are expressing concern that wireless startup LightSquared's proposed mobile broadband service will interfere with GPS devices vital to military operations and aviation safety, and they are calling for a "comprehensive" study of the issue.

In a joint letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Deputy Defense Department Secretary William J. Lynn and Transportation Department Deputy Secretary John Porcari said that they haven't been sufficiently included in the FCC's review of LightSquared's GPS interference issues. GPS users are concerned LightSquared's service could knock out their systems because LightSquared is proposing to operate on spectrum frequencies that are very close to those used by GPS services. The Defense and Transportation departments "strongly advise that a comprehensive study of all the potential interference to GPS is needed," they wrote in the March 25 letter. "The new LightSquared business plan and the new FCC rules significantly expand the terrestrial transmission environment, increasing the potential for interference to GPS receivers."