Ground control

摘要

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently refereeing a disagreement between LightSquared, a company proposing the introduction of a new wireless communications network in the US, and GNSS manufacturers and users. LightSquared's satellite to ground-based broadband system would transmit signals 1 billion times more powerful as received on earth than US GPS satellite signals, and users of GPS are concerned that the strength of these signals and their proximity to GPS signals in the electromagnetic spectrum could render GPS devices useless in many areas. Indeed, a working group co-chaired by LightSquared and the US GPS Industry Council tested more than 130 devices in seven different receiver categories and in a number of different test environments over a three-month period, and found evidence of significant interference between LightSquared operations and GPS signals.