Stick a fork in it - LightSquared is toast

Very good news -- from the New York Times:

F.C.C. Bars the Use of Airwaves for a Broadband Plan
A proposed wireless broadband network that would provide voice and Internet service using airwaves once reserved for satellite-telephone transmissions should be shelved because it interferes with GPS technology, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

The F.C.C. statement revokes the conditional approval for the network given last year. It comes after an opinion by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which said that �there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference at this time� with GPS devices. The telecommunications and information agency oversees telecommunications policy at the Commerce Department.

The news appears to squash the near-term hopes for the network pushed by LightSquared, a Virginia company that is majority-owned by Philip Falcone, a New York hedge fund manager.

Not mentioned is that Falcone is a major Obama contributor/bundler. LightSquared would have used the same frequencies as our GPS network. All tests proved that there was major interference with GPS operation. More from InsideGNSS:

NTIA and FCC Agree: No Practical Way to Fix LightSquared�s GPS Interference Problem
The GPS community received a Valentine�s Day message from U.S. regulators today (February 14, 2012): there is �no practical way� to mitigate potential interference posed by terrestrial transmissions from LightSquared�s proposed wireless broadband network.

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genechowski, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) head Lawrence Strickling said his agency�s independent evaluation of tests and analysis over the last several months led to this conclusion.

And the good news is that this is forcing some standards in the general GPS community:

A Nudge Toward GPS Receiver Standards
A section late in Strickling�s eight-page letter indicated the NTIA�s inclination to push the interference issue further in the direction of establishing GPS receiver standards that, outside of the aviation community, do not exist.

Strickling noted the PNT ExCom�s stated intent to develop new GPS spectrum interference standards that will �help inform future proposals for non-space commercial uses in the bands adjacent to the GPS signals. . . .� Such efforts, he said, �will serve as the basis to protect such GPS receivers used by civilian and military federal agencies from outside interference, as well as the basis for standards for the development and procurement of GPS receivers to support their various mission requirements.�

Good riddance to bad tech...