The FCC has revoked Lightsquared’s waiver to operate its nationwide, satellite-based broadband network. The move comes after those trying to block the system lobbied against it claiming it would interfere with GPS traffic.
CCIA and others hoping for more available spectrum and more wireless broadband competition are disappointed with this setback.
Federal regulatory bureaucracy and entrenched private and government interests have perpetrated a “bait and switch” maneuver on private business investors who played by the rules. The FCC has essentially granted squatters’ rights to users of GPS devices that were never engineered to respect the lawful property boundaries of their licensed frequencies — simply because they were there first.
Those lobbying government agencies to deny Lightsquared’s waiver are politically powerful due to their agricultural and military roots.
Meanwhile all American businesses and consumers will be denied the affordable mobile wireless bandwidth they so clearly need and Lightsquared could have provided.