LightSquared Rebuts Pay-for-play Charges (with Obama administration)

[alp227]

Source: IDG News

Mobile startup LightSquared struck back against a report on Thursday that it had received preferential treatment from the Obama Administration as it sought permission to build a cellular data network that appears to hurt GPS performance.

The Daily Beast news website reported that Obama Administration officials confirmed they had asked General William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, to modify his testimony about LightSquared at a hearing held Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee. According to the article, Shelton said he felt pressure to soften his testimony against LightSquared. The report also said Shelton's prepared testimony had been leaked to LightSquared before the hearing.

The military has been sharply critical of LightSquared's plan because of test results that have shown harmful effects on GPS (Global Positioning System), a system that was built by the Defense Department and is considered critical for U.S. military operations. LightSquared plans to operate a terrestrial LTE network on frequencies that until now have been restricted to satellite services.

The report led to fresh charges that the Obama Administration helped LightSquared gain conditional approval for its network because Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital Partners owns the carrier, has contributed to Democrats. On Thursday, Rep. Michael Turner, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, reportedly said he is seeking an investigation of the administration's treatment of LightSquared.

Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/240143/lightsquared_rebuts_payforplay_charges.html

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Expect the Solyndra and LightSquared scandals to be played up come 2012.

[msongs]

1. Obama's best friends come back to bite him nt

[groundloop]

2. WHICH "Obama Administration Officials" ?

Kinda' sounds like someone on the administration staff is overstepping their bounds. His/her ass needs to be kicked out the door.

Putting cell phone service right next to gps frequencies is a stupid idea.

[boppers]

5. How far away is far enough?

Simple question. Lightsquared moved 23Mhz away, voluntarily, rendering that portion of the spectrum totally *useless*, because some GPS manufacturers apparently found the concept of band filtering to be revolutionary in nature.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. LightSquared needs to be squashed...

They are going to destroy almost every GPS reciever on the planet so people can have faster cellphone speeds. I was unaware that they had any connections in the administration until this post, though many of us were wondering how they got some of the approvals they did.

[boppers]

4. Show me the science.

For starters, show me where LightSquared is operating everywhere on the planet (re: "almost every GPS receiver on the planet") They're primarily terrestrial, and US only.. Then, you can show me how a device that isn't even operating in the same spectrum would affect GPS (Lightsquared is 23 Mhz away now)... or heck, I could just show you:

Here was the claim:
http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/news/data-shows-disastrous-gps-jamming-fcc-approved-broadcaster-11029

Very doom-y and gloom-y, shitty low end GPS units that don't do even basic primitive signal filtering can be jammed, by, well, damn near anybody who bleeds into the spectrum, or even uses licensed *neighboring* spectrum. No surprise there, which is why higher-end GPS units have more filtering. Lightsquared pointed out that GPS has had at least 8 years to fix this problem, but they didn't... so Lightsquared moved to using lower bands, and less db, for the time being, while telling GPS makers how to do their own damn jobs.

Oh, and Lightsquared phones use GPS, too, so it's in their *interest* to keep GPS functional. It's not, however, in the interest of the current market players to have more competition, so they're happy to FUD things up.

Required reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightSquared#Network_issues

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Perhaps you are unaware of its impact on avaition units, including those of the US military

There are a lot more people and literature about the issue than just that one article. The entire aviation community is up in arms since it will create dead zones.

The Wikipedia writeup is practically a corporate puff piece. Have to see about editing it back to a semblance of fairness. The edit history is telling and I will report it as well.

[boppers]

9. Edit away!

I like to point to WP as a starting point, because an article usually has lots of links out, and more editors are always good.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. I passed the request to a friend who is a long term editor there, he was agast at the PR

[1monster]

6. You quoted the allegations agains LightSquared and the White House, but not the rebuttal...

From the same article.

"Any suggestion that LightSquared has run roughshod over the regulatory process is contradicted by the reality of eight long years spent gaining approvals," LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said in a prepared statement. The key approvals for its project were made during the Republican administration of George W. Bush, Ahuja said. Further evidence is that the government asked for more tests of LightSquared's technology just this week, and that the company wasn't allowed to speak in its own defense at the Armed Services hearing, he said."

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/240143/lightsquared_rebuts_payforplay_charges.html

[akvo]

8. Thats not the problem

What bothers me is the White House interferring with the testimony of General Shelton (wh was presenting the military's position on the subject).
The fact that LightSquared is owned by a big dem fund raiser makes it very suspicious.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Multiple stories about a USAF general getting pressure over this

One such article:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/15/lightsquared-did-white-house-pressure-general-shelton-to-help-donor.html

[boppers]

12. The "Pressure" in said article:

1. White house supports more broadband.
2. White house wants tests about problems within the glacial period of 3 months.

[letmedrinkuin]

13. LightSquared=Halliburton

LightSquared and Solyndra are more examples that Obama = Bush