The Federal Communications Commission’s desire to promote broadband competition continues to run up against the desire of some powerful government agencies and their allies to protect spectrum holdings and incumbent services.

This week, a bipartisan group of powerful senators, including the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel asking the FCC to reverse course on its decision to allow Ligado Networks to use satellite spectrum adjacent to GPS for terrestrial 5G starting at the end of next month.

“Staying and reconsidering the Ligado Order is necessary to address the imminent risks associated with Ligado’s intention to ‘commence operations in the 1526-1536 Mhz band on or after September 30, 2022,’ ” they wrote. “We remain gravely concerned that the Ligado Order fails to adequately protect adjacent band operations — including those related to GPS and satellite communications — from harmful interference impacting countless military and commercial activities.”

Lead senators on the letter were Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Joining them were Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

Despite pushback from GPS entities, airline and pilot associations in particular, and some federal agencies, notably the Department of Defense, the FCC — including then-commissioner Rosenworcel — voted unanimously in April 2020 to approve an application by Ligado (formerly LightSquared) to deploy a low-power terrestrial 5G network in the L-band satellite spectrum, one of a series of FCC decisions meant to free up more spectrum for 5G.

GPS companies and users had pushed back on the application, saying they could face interference to critical services. FCC engineers, though, said harmful interference could be avoided, including by requiring a guard band of spectrum between Ligado and adjacent-band GPS and a 99% reduction in power levels from Ligado's 2015 application.

Ajit Pai, FCC chairman when the Ligado decision was made, characterized the cries of intereference as fear-mongering.

In 2021, Congress also put some guardrails around the FCC's Ligado authorization by including language in the Defense Authorization Act making it explicit that Ligad cannot interfere with GPS and proceed with its broadband plans.

Ligado has been trying to launch a terrestrial wholesale wireless broadband service using spectrum initially licensed for satellite for over a decade, though back then it was for a 4G network. ▪️

FCC chair Ajit Pai still has a fight on his hands when it comes to his proposal to allow Ligado to launch its long-sought terrestrial broadband network using L-band satellite spectrum. 

Airline interests including plane builders, pilots, air transport companies and airlines including Jet Blue, Delta, and Southwest have petitioned the FCC to dismiss the Ligado application, which the chairman has proposed to approve and circulated an order to that effect for a vote by the other commissioners. 

Related: AG Barr Praises FCC Ligado Item as Helping Beat China to 5G 

In the petition to dismiss, a copy of which was obtained by Multichannel News, they said: "For nearly a decade Ligado Networks LLC (“Ligado”) has subjected the FCC to a steady barrage of waiver requests, license modification applications, amendments to those applications, and ex parte presentations, all attempting to abandon its dwindling satellite business in order to gain the Commission’s blessing for its constantly evolving terrestrial wireless business plans that seem more attuned to political expedience than a response to actual market needs."

Groups comprising aviation, satellite and weather information companies, along with government agencies, have pushed back on Ligado's plan, citing potential interference to GPS in adjacent bands and saying the company has never sufficiently addressed those interference concerns. 

They said that rather than approve the application after almost a decade, the FCC should dismiss it and move on. 

"The Commission should put an end to this constant, fruitless distraction, and allow the parties to refocus their efforts on operating their businesses, as well as the affected federal agencies missions, and productively supporting the public interest. 

In a separate petition, Accuweather. the American Meteorological Society and others in that space also petitioned for dismissal of Ligado's "oft-evolving proposal." 

Pointing to recent killer tornadoes in the Southeast, they told the FCC: "The public and numerous industries rely on timely and accurate predictions to make criticaldecisions about life and property. Any degradation to the data used for these forecasts reduces the ability for people and industries to stay safe in severe weather."

Pai has said that with the conditions the FCC is imposing on Ligado, and based on FCC engineering reviews, the service can launch without harmful interference given the power levels involved.

Free State Foundation president Randolph May blogged this week that the FCC should move with dispatch to free up 5.9 GHz band and L-band spectrum for next gen communications.

The 5.9 GHz band was allocated for short-range vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, but those have been slow to pan out and are likely to be mooted by app-based systems that do not require that spectrum. 

ISPs have been pushing the FCC to at least let them share the band with auto makers, but now they and many at the FCC are talking about freeing up some or all of the band for WiFi use.

May also suggests the FCC should grant the application of Ligado Network's (formerly LightSquared) application to use "fallow" L-band spectrum for its hybrid satellite/mobile broadband network.

May said moving forward on repurposing both bands "holds the promise, if resolved in a timely manner, of making spectrum available that can be used to meet the growing demand for wireless services and for what the memorandum calls the 'burgeoning Internet of Things.'

He also pointed to President Trump's recent directive on a new spectrum strategy and said he hoped that would spur FCC action. But May also gave the FCC and its opposite number in terms of federal spectrum, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, props for its efforts to date to free up more spectrum: "NTIA and the FCC are to be commended for their efforts during the last two years to make more spectrum
available to enable the offering of innovative new services," he said. 

Ligado says it is "awaiting FCC review of its terrestrial authorizations in L-Band and is working with equipment vendors to select 5G suppliers."Back when it was LigthSquared, a half dozen years ago, the company failed to gain FCC clearance to launch its network due to interference concerns.