NTIA Petitions FCC to Reconsider Ligado OK

procedural and substantive flaws. It said the approval went against the FCC's "long and respectful history" of deferring to NTIA and federal agencies on GPS and national security and was an "unexplained break from the healthy respect." It said the FCC should acknowledge more technical studies and testing are needed to guarantee Ligado's terrestrial network won't cause harmful interference and that none of the company's mitigation proposals or conditions has been tested or evaluated by an independent party. At the very least, Ligado approval should be modified with different downlink power levels and removal of requirements on agencies to work with or share information with Ligado or to identify affected GPS receivers. Ligado should have a dedicated telephone number and email address for federal agencies to report suspected interference to a Ligado network operations center. NTIA said its petition is focused on DOD-related issues, but the FCC "failed to consider the major economic impact its decision will have on civilian GPS users and the American economy." NTIA also asked for a stay to stop L-band deployment by Ligado until its petition is addressed and interference issues resolved. Before deployment, the FCC should "meaningfully test its new and unproven harmful interference metric and overhaul unworkable grant conditions," NTIA said. The FCC said it "appreciate[d] the support that our Ligado Order has received from high-ranking Executive Branch officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr."