[RockyMcNuts]

Exactly, they licensed the spectrum for satellite comms, and LightSquared wants to exploit a loophole to use it as (much more valuable) cellular LTE.

It's kind of like buying land zoned for industrial use next to the airport because you can get it rezoned for residential and make a ton of money. And the airport is saying WTF, now we're going to have to deal with local voters who will want us to change the way we do things.

If you're going to do this sort of thing, you need to make sure you have your engineering down pat, and your local politicians and regulators in your pocket.

see http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2012/02/lightsquared-some-...

[jws]

"Loophole" is not a word that means anything in law. Their licenses describe a set of legal uses. If the FCC doesn't want to allow these then let them offer a comparable solution.

Personally, I think it makes sense to declare a quiet zone around the GPS frequencies if it enables smaller, cheaper, and lower power consuming GPS receivers. But that should involve relocating the existing license holders.

[RockyMcNuts]

'assclown' is not a word that means anything in law. But there are situations where it applies in real life.

[rprasad]

Exactly. But Lightsquared is NOT an "existing license holder". Lightsquared purchased the neighboring spectrum within the past few years. At the time it purchased the spectrum, it knew that the spectrum was limited to low-power transmissions.

[jws]

The FCC set no limit on the number or power of terrestrial towers. In hindsight, that was shortsighted of them, but the licenses are there. It is only the GPS interference