Ligado Airwaves Proposal Opposed by U.S. Defense Department
Ligado Airwaves Proposal Opposed by U.S. Defense Department
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Defense Department asked regulators to reject Ligado Networks LLC’s proposal to offer mobile broadband service, saying the system could interfere with GPS, or global-positioning system, devices.
“There are too many unknowns and the risks are far too great to federal operations to allow Ligado’s proposed system to proceed,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a Nov. 18 letter. “This could have a significant negative impact on military operations, both in peacetime and war. I, therefore, strongly oppose.”
Ligado’s proposed service has “the potential for widespread disruption and degradation of GPS services” that rely on signals from space, Esper said in the letter.
Esper sent the letter, released Wednesday by the Pentagon, to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, who is to decide whether Ligado can proceed. Critics have said the service may interfere with weather forecasts and aviation-safety devices. Tina Pelkey, an FCC spokeswoman, didn’t immediately comment.
Ashley Durmer, a spokeswoman for Ligado, in an email said the Esper letter is “nothing new, and in fact, the exact same letter was sent to the FCC in June.”
“Can it really be true that our military operations are vulnerable to a 10 watt lightbulb? We don’t think so. But that is what this letter suggests,” she wrote.
The outcome will be watched in London, where takeover target Inmarsat PLC could expect more revenue from its customer Ligado if the FCC clears the company to offer its service. Shareholders for Inmarsat have argued its price should be higher because the deal undervalues Ligado’s potential payments.
Ligado is successor to financier Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc., which entered bankruptcy in 2012 after failing to win federal approval for an earlier airwaves plan dogged by interference concerns.
To contact the reporters on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net;Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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