LightSquared today submitted an analysis of the GPS market that observes declines in the sector. “We explained that company research shows customers today are overwhelmingly using smartphones for general location and navigation cases, and a result, the number of personal navigation devices (PND) being sold is declining rapidly and those in actual use are also shrinking,” LightSquared said in an ex parte filing in IB docket 12-340 that reported on a meeting with FCC officials.

The market analysis also said that “[t]he market for high precision agriculture is down due to low commodity prices and poor weather conditions,” while “[t]he market for high precision construction GPS is growing but prices are expected to fall.” The filing also said that “companies increasingly are using other solutions to compensate for GPS limitations, including inertial measure units (IMUs) and real time kinetics (RTK).” “These slides are the precursor to a lengthy report on the GPS market that LightSquared intends to deliver to the FCC and other agencies after Labor Day. We want facts to replace anecdotes as a basis for decisions about receiver design and network deployment,” LightSquared spokeswoman Ashley Durmer told TRDaily.