Proposed Terrestrial Network Endangers Critical Programs and Systems

The AEA joined a broad coalition this week to express "profound concern over the Federal Communications Commission’s flawed Ligado Order that, if left in place, would upend decades of sound spectrum policy, negatively impact a significant cross-section of commercial, federal, and academic users who rely on the many different L-band satellite services, and threaten the safety of most Americans."

Nearly 80 organizations, including representatives from aviation, aerospace, agriculture, first responders, ground transportation, marine, metrological, surveying, GPS, and satellite industries, wrote to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to "respectfully request your Committee’s assistance in ensuring that the Commission reconsider its decision to allow a harmful terrestrial network to be built using L-band spectrum."

The letter specifies that. "Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network would fundamentally put the vital L-band satellite communications services—that in some instances serve as the only way to reach even the most remote regions of the world and are critical to safe aviation—at risk. In addition, the proposed Ligado network would disrupt the reliability of satellite communications services and the many critical applications that rely upon Global Positioning System (“GPS”), which has direct implications for safety-of-life in commercial aviation operations, precision farming and irrigation management that have revolutionized the agriculture economy, autonomous ground and air vehicles that will bring a new generation of transportation, precise and actionable weather data that can predict hurricanes and other life-threatening natural events, and many other applications. Simply put, the Ligado Order failed to take full account of the diverse services in the L-band, including those relied on by military, federal, and public safety users, that would be stranded or significantly impaired (without available alternatives) by the harmful interference caused by Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network."

FMI: https://aea.net/pdf/Coalition_Letter_to_WickerCantwell_2020-10-27.pdf