Sanjiv Ahuja, LightSquared’s CEO, published an open
letter to all Americans that will run in major newspapers. In the letter, Ahuja
reaffirms LightSquared’s commitment to making wireless broadband accessible and
affordable across America through the company’s wholesale-only nationwide
4G-LTE network integrated with satellite coverage.
To Americans everywhere,
Today, with limited competition in the U.S. wireless
market, there are still vast areas of our country without access to broadband.
Other areas are plagued by dropped calls and weak signals.
America’s wireless infrastructure is at a critical
crossroad as weak signals, dead-zones, and over-subscribed networks risk
stalling American innovation and failing to meet consumer needs now and in the
future. Within the next 24 months, demand for broadband wireless will outstrip
the current total spectrum available in the United States jeopardizing everything
from the smartphones and tablets we love to the emergency responder services we
rely upon to keep us safe. The current nationwide wireless providers have
failed to innovate and in the process have failed to keep pace with consumer
and technological demands.
Understanding this impending reality, LightSquared began
investing nearly a decade ago in the development of America’s first
state-of-the-art nationwide wireless broadband network integrated with
satellite coverage to provide high quality broadband access and affordability
for all Americans. After the review of our engineering and technological plans,
LightSquared received the license to operate our network in 2003 and again in
2005 with the full endorsement of the GPS industry. Half a dozen years ago,
Republican and Democrat regulators and policy experts understood the impending
crisis caused by a lack of competition and innovation, and they, too, endorsed
our plan to bring an affordable solution to Americans no matter where they
live.
Recently, concerns have been raised about interference
with GPS devices. We take these concerns very seriously. Despite the fact that
the interference is caused by others’ inappropriate use of LightSquared’s
licensed spectrum, we have been proactive in working toward a solution to the
GPS issue. We are making a $150 million private investment in the solution for
GPS. We have moved our spectrum farther away from the core GPS frequencies and
at the request of the FCC, we set up, funded, and ran the largest and most comprehensive
testing program this country has ever seen.
Hundreds of engineers tested hundreds of devices in
laboratories around the country, providing experts an enormous bank of data to
assess the extent of the problem and design the solution.
With 99.5 percent of all commercial GPS interference
accounted for and solved, LightSquared
has now tackled solving the remaining .5 percent of GPS interference occurring
on precision devices that also inappropriately violate our licensed
spectrum. We have partnered with established GPS manufacturers to develop
technology that eliminates interference issues for high-precision GPS devices,
including those in the agriculture, surveying, construction, and defense
industries. Pre-production designs are already in testing; once completed, this
technology can be implemented simply, quickly, and inexpensively into GPS
devices.
This solution allows our network to coexist harmoniously,
side by side, with GPS – generating much-needed competition in the marketplace
and ultimately providing more than 260 million Americans with access to
wireless broadband.
The facts are clear. The need for additional wireless
broadband is imminent. The desire to expand free-market competition and to
provide consumers with broader access has been the hallmark of both Republican
and Democrat policy makers for more than a decade. Regulators from both
Democrat and Republican Administrations have conducted reviews and tests of the
LightSquared network the most extensive in the history of the FCC and both have
reached the same conclusions: they support the LightSquared network.
LightSquared’s commitment to infuse $14 billion of
private investment without any government funding into America’s infrastructure
will bring 75,000 jobs over the next five years, competition, and innovation to
the U.S. wireless industry, with affordable prices and better service for
Americans everywhere. I hope you will join with us as we work to build the
21st-century communications network all Americans deserve.
By Sanjiv Ahuja
