GPS Squares up to LightSquared

[RobBrady]

According to the The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a billionaire backed company called LightSquared plans to revolutionize the US cellphone industry by 2012 and satisfy the ever increasing hunger for data services.

But some members of the GPS industry, including TomTom, Garmin, Magellan and ourselves at PocketGPSWorld.com, all members of The Coalition to Save Our GPS, aren't happy. LightSquared's network of two communications satellites and 40,000 antennas, all built from scratch, is said to threaten GPS signals with radio interference.

It is claimed that this will block GPS devices within 4 miles of a LightSquared tower - including aircraft up to 12 miles above. LightSquared contends that the interference problem is caused by a GPS industry that "has been trying to cut corners for cost reasons, and they found they could make a cheaper GPS receiver if they didn't filter its signal reception as well as they should have".

The US authorities have given LightSquared the go ahead to test its network in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Baltimore and Denver.

The service will be rolled out to wholesale wireless companies instead of directly to consumers.

The GPS industry's arguments against LightSquared can be found at The Coalition to Save Our GPS.
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Robert Brady

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