The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions has submitted an ex parte filing in the LightSquared docket expressing “concerns regarding the proposed use of certain radio spectrum bands near the GPS bands that could negatively affect GPS signal availability.”

In its Oct. 13 filing in IB dockets 12-340 and 11-109, ATIS said that the “signal availability is a prerequisite for the proper functioning of U.S. telecommunications networks, especially for mobile users. Therefore, while the telecommunications industry supports maximizing available bandwidth, it urges the Commission to carefully consider the impact of new systems that could interfere with the important use of GPS by U.S. telecommunications networks.”

ATIS stressed the importance of GPS receivers for precision time accuracy, and said that telecom GPS receivers at base station sites can’t be moved. “If strong signals are allowed in bands adjacent to GPS signals, the performance of the GPS receivers used throughout telecommunications networks could be significantly degraded,” said ATIS, which submitted its filing on behalf of its Copper/Optical Access, Synchronization and Transport (COAST) Committee. “Because none of the mitigation techniques being proposed to address this issue will help with the specific impacts on precision timing receivers, the result could be a decline in network reliability and resiliency.”

The filing stressed that the adding a filter to antennas won’t work for precision-timing antennas because it will impact timing accuracy.

“ATIS COAST will also be providing its input to the Department of Transportation (DOT) GPS Adjacent-Band Compatibility Assessment as that work progresses,” the filing added. “ATIS COAST encourages open testing where the precision timing GPS receiver type is represented and any impact on this specific type of GPS receiver can be measured for timing accuracy versus both industry specifications (i.e. for LTE wireless networks) and Commission requirements (i.e. E911 positioning requirements). ATIS COAST believes the results of the DOT study and any related technical work should be considered before any decision is made to change the use of bands adjacent to GPS signals, to avoid any impact to voice and data services on existing and future networks.”

In response to the ATIS filing, Ashley Durmer, a LightSquared spokeswoman, said today that Dennis Roberson, president and chief executive officer of Roberson & Associates, the company’s engineering consultants, “will take their concerns into account, and we will meet with them to discuss his [GPS-LTE compatibility test plan] report.”- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily