90 groups mark 2-year Ligado Order anniversary with new letter

April 27, 2022 - By Tracy Cozzens

A new letter has been sent to both President Biden and congressional leadership by 90 groups opposed to Ligado’s plans to launch a terrestrial network in the L-band used by GPS.

The letter, dated April 25, marked the two-year anniversary of a controversial decision by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt the Ligado Order.

The 90 groups represent companies, organizations and associations united in their grave concerns over “imminent — but preventable — harm from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network.” These groups have serious concerns about how Ligado’s plan threatens to interfere with services provided by the GNSS, aviation and real-time environmental satellite-data communities.

Staying the order is necessitated by the clear bipartisan will of Congress. After adoption of the order in 2020, Congress mandated an independent technical review to further assess the harmful interference that would be caused by Ligado’s proposed network and required the Department of Defense to brief federal representatives across the government “at the highest level of classification” on the potential for widespread harm from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations.

On this basis alone, the FCC should stay the order to adequately consider the material new information that will be uncovered as a result of these ongoing Congressionally mandated processes, according to the letter writers.

Their concern was made even more real following the announcement by Ligado that the company intends “to commence operations in the 1526-1536 MHz band on or after Sept. 30, 2022.”