Home › News ›

Senate Politics Over LightSquared Threatens FCC Nominations

Dec 9, 2011, 1:29 PM by Eric M. Zeman

The Senate Commerce Committee has provisionally approved President Barack Obama's nominees to fill vacant seats on the Federal Communications Commission. The committee upheld Republican Ajit Vradaraj Pai and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel's nominations in a vote last week, preparing the nominees for a full senate vote. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, however, has threatened to place a hold on the nominees' vote until the FCC releases more documents concerning its January decision to allow LightSquared to operate its planned Long Term Evolution 4G network on L-Band satellite spectrum. Grassley accused the FCC of rushing to approve LightSquared's plans, which have since been shown to interfere with aviation and military GPS performance. "As a last resort to try to exhort more transparency and accountability from the FCC, I'll place a hold on consideration of the agency nominees on the Senate floor," Grassley said in an interview with Bloomberg. LightSquared's plans continue to draw fire, despite its assurances that the interference issues can be resolved. Today, LightSquared announced that it has signed its 30th wholesale partner, which will resell LightSquared's 4G broadband services if the network ever launches.

Fierce Wireless »

Related

iPhone 14 Plus Offers a Big Screen For Less

Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.

Qualcomm Taps Iridium for Satellite Connectivity

Jan 5, 2023
Qualcomm has revealed Snapdragon Satellite , the company's solution for connecting Android phones directly to satellites for truly global coverage. The feature uses the Iridium network, a satellite constellation that has has been in operation for 25 years.

Bullitt Announces First Phones with Satellite Messaging

Feb 27, 2023
Bullitt has announced the first Android phones that will include two-way satellite messaging capability. The Motorola defy 2 and CAT S75 are both designed to connect to Bullitt's new Satellite Connect platform.

C-Band 5G Launches Delayed until Next Year

Nov 4, 2021
AT&T and Verizon have agreed to an FAA request to delay the launch of 5G in new C-Band radio frequencies by one month, while potential interference issues are addressed, reports the Wall Street Journal. Both companies were planning to launch the highly-anticipated mid-band 5G service on or around December 5th, but will now launch the service no sooner than January 5th, 2022.

Verizon, AT&T Moving Forward with C-Band 5G Launch This Week Over FAA Objection

Jan 2, 2022
Verizon and AT&T this morning refused a request by federal transportation officials to delay this week's planned launch of 5G service in the critical new C Band. [Update: By evening, the two companies agreed to a two-week delay.] The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) insists that the service could potentially interfere with radio altimeters that planes use to measure distance to the ground in poor weather.

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

jmoita2

Dec 9, 2011, 1:55 PM

FCC...

Ha! At this point the president could nominate Jesus or Ghandi to head the FCC,and the republicans would block it...

dlmjr

In reality, they are blocking a Republican and a Democrat nominee.

So much for Republicans = bad knee jerk

Tofuchong

The republicans would block both Jesus and Ghandi either way, as that would bring too much competence to the government. We cant have that!

...

dlmjr

Rename this article, I Hate Republicans.

Everybody is ignoring the fact that the FCC is messing around with allowing LS to use a portion of the spectrum that will interfere with GPS, to include military and air traffic.

So, a congress person thr...
(continues)

Page 1 of 1