LightSquared May Be Doomed, FCC Casts Doubt On New Plans

I will admit to being a bit excited at the thought of LightSquared coming to market. Anyone who lives in an area with only one broadband provider offering only slow speeds at a high price would appreciate competition. One of the services that I was hoping would provide that competition is LightSquared. The company is on the ropes though.

The initial plans for the wireless broadband service were shot down due to interference with many GPS devices on the market right now. LightSquared came back with an alternative plan with a lower powered service that it said would not interfere as badly. Even those plans are being frowned on by the FCC, and it appears that LightSquared may be dead before it starts.

A letter from the FAA has been published that used tests by a panel of nine experts in different government agencies and departments. The conclusion was that LightSquared posed a risk of dangerous interference with GPS devices. LightSquared has argued in the past that GPS has no right to protection and that the GPS makers had poorly designed devices. The insinuation by LightSquared was that it's not its wireless service but shoddy GPS designs that allow interference.