LightSquared on Schedule to Meet Buildout Requirements, Says CEO

Ahuja continued in the interview to downplay concern for the company’s future. The ingenuity of American engineers will move LightSquared beyond the GPS interference worries, he said. The company has already proven that a fix is possible through the receiver it recently said LightSquared had developed with a GPS device manufacturer (CD Sept 15 p7). Ahuja made numerous mentions of the decade-long regulatory process that led to the current fight between LightSquared and the GPS industry. That fight and the regulatory process has gained major attention from lawmakers, some of whom say LightSquared was able to earn favorable treatment due to donations to Democrats.

"The process was very robust,” Ahuja said. It is “disappointing” that some of people now raising concerns didn’t say something earlier in the decade when other FCC proceedings led to the possibility of terrestrial wireless service in the L-band, he said. Larger wireless players, which are fully vertically integrated, are “uncomfortable” because LightSquared is “challenging the existing business model,” he said, but LightSquared hopes they will become partners down the line.

Ahuja’s description of the regulatory past is flawed, said the Coalition to Save Our GPS. “Mr. Ahuja’s recent public statements prove that LightSquared will truly say anything in its desperation to save its ill-conceived plan,” said Jim Kirkland, general counsel of Trimble and a leader in the Coalition. “Massive PR campaigns and glossy ads can’t make false statements true. At the end of the day, this is all about money for LightSquared. It doesn’t want to pay the costs of replacing expensive GPS equipment bought with the hard-earned money of farmers and small businesses, so it blames the GPS industry for interference. And it doesn’t want the American public and taxpayers to know that if LightSquared’s plans are allowed to go forward, it will receive a $10 billion windfall increase in the value of its spectrum, according to its own consultants’ estimates."

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote another letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday. Grassley asked that the FCC detail who will pay to retrofit government and privately-owned GPS receivers that would be affected if the FCC finds LightSquared has resolved the interference issues. Grassley has written to Genachowski several times, though the focus in the past was the regulatory process that led to LightSquared receiving an FCC waiver allowing it to provide terrestrial service in mobile satellite service spectrum.

LightSquared quickly jumped on Grassley’s letter, pointing to it as support for the idea that a technical fix to the GPS interference issue is possible. “We're gratified that Senator Grassley has recognized something that the GPS industry has denied for months,” said Ahuja in a written statement. “The industry tried to say that there was no technical or engineering fix to the interference problem. They said there was no way to build a filter or to coexist with LightSquared’s network. They said it would take ten years and tens of billions of dollars to research and find a solution. The GPS industry has now been proven wrong on every level. In a matter of months, LightSquared and the private marketplace have produced a solution using current technology and materials. The industry now has turned its focus to what the real issue was for them all along — protecting their pocketbooks.”

Grassley took issue with LightSquared’s conclusion. “In his latest letter, Sen. Grassley is not taking a position on whether there is or is not a technical fix to LightSquared’s interference problem,” said a Grassley spokeswoman, responding to Ahuja. “He simply is asking the FCC whether the taxpayers should be left holding the bag regarding a potential fix, especially given that such a potential fix might cost billions of dollars. LightSquared shouldn’t misrepresent Sen. Grassley’s words in an attempt to score political points.”