FCC International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre and Office
of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp are the only two witnesses
slated for a House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the
FCC's handling of the conditional waiver to LightSquared, according to the
committee website.
The hearing will look at how the FCC came to the January
2011 decision to grant a conditional waiver to LightSquared to use satellite
spectrum for terrestrial mobile service.
The FCC eventually moved to rescind the waiver due to what
it and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration agreed
were virtually irresolvable interference issues with GPS devices in adjacent
spectrum. The waiver had always been conditioned on resolving those issues.
The FCC wanted LightSquared to be able to deliver a
wholesale 4G mobile broadband service to boost competition in that space. It
has since takensteps to loosen restrictions on satellite spectrum to make it more flexible
and accommodating to companies, like Dish, who want to use satellite spectrum
for terrestrial mobile broadband use.
In a background memo on the Friday hearing, committee
staffers point out that the FCC has yet to make a final determination on
vacating the waiver. While LightSquared has filed for bankruptcy -- LightSquared
invested billions, banking that the GPS hurdles would be cleared -- it has said
it was still willing to launch the service if the government would let it.
Following that bankruptcy filing, the parent House Energy and
Commerce Committee launchedan investigation into how the waiver was granted.
Among the issues committee staffers signaled could be
addressed at the hearing:
"Did the FCC adequately consider the interests of other
MSS [Mobile Satellite Service] operators and GPS providers throughout the
course of its LightSquared deliberations?
"In the view of the FCC, is the overload interference
to GPS receivers caused by (1) LightSquared improperly transmitting its signals
into the GPS band or (2) GPS receivers failing to adequately filter
transmissions from adjacent frequency bands?
"When did the FCC become aware of the possibility of
overload interference to GPS receivers caused by the operation of terrestrial
base stations in the L-band? Should the FCC have anticipated this issue prior
to granting the January 2011 Conditional Waiver?
"How does the expansion of terrestrial operations in
the MSS bands factor into the goals and objectives of the National Broadband
Plan?"
