LightSquared, in attempt to convince the government to approve their giant plan launch a new 4G network, is willing to spend 10′s of millions of dollars to retrofit government GPS devices with a proprietary add-on. This proposed “solution” is nothing but a high-precision receiver that is capable of phasing out interferences caused by their own LTE network, which is right next to GPS signals on the radio frequency spectrum.
These receivers are to be manufactured by Javad and be ready by mid-October for testing. Another proposal from LightSquared is to use the lower 10MHz part of its L-Band spectrum, which it claims will have less interference with GPS receivers that are currently on the market.
Each of these high precision receivers will cost $50 to $300. However there’s no official record on how many units might be out there in hands of the government since some of them might actually be classified.
The Coalition To Save GPS, made up of mostly GPS manufacturers, is not happy with this proposed solution stating the claims of a single vendor that has ‘solved’ the problem can’t be significant and it requires more vigorous testing.
Lightsquared, which invested at least four billion dollars, is planning on wholesaling airwaves to cell phone companies to expand their 4G coverage. Sprint is probably waiting for this deal to go through so they continue competing with Verizon and AT&T.
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LightSquared willing to retrofit GPS devices for the government
Source: Navigadget
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