The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling permitting Light-Squared's wholesale customers to sell terrestrial-only smartphones for use with its planned satellite-terrestrial mobile broadband network was appropriate provided the company can prove that the resulting changes will not cause interference to signals from the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system. LightSquared, one of several ventures planning so-called hybrid networks in the United States, has much else to prove, including whether it can finance and deploy the ground-based part of its system on the schedule it has outlined and then build a successful business. But keeping GPS, which provides critical timing and navigation services - including safety-of-life functions - free from interference comes first and foremost.
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