LightSquared creates rural initiative

LightSquared continues to try to drum up popular support for its wireless network plans, announcing the creation of what it is calling an “Empower Rural America Initiative.” (CP: LightSquared Forms Rural Initiative to Ensure LightSquared and GPS Co-Existence)

The proposed LightSquared network offers a “huge opportunity for broadband in places that don’t have broadband now,” a LightSquared spokesman told Connected Planet this morning. “Too much of rural America is on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

LightSquared’s rural initiative will be led by an advisory board that currently has three members—Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and former U.S. representatives George Nethercutt of Washington and Charlie Stenholm of Texas. Moving forward, the board will be expanded to include additional members, the spokesman said.

LightSquared plan under attack
The creation of the rural initiative comes at a time when LightSquared’s plan has come under attack from the global positioning system industry, which is concerned that LightSquared’s network can make their systems inoperable (CP: LightSquared lashes back at GPS industry). LightSquared’s spectrum was originally intended for satellite use only, but the company hopes to build a network that combines terrestrial wireless and satellite service.

LightSquared argues that the GPS interference problems can be addressed by installing filters on GPS systems, and the company has been lining up as much support as possible for that view.

One of the tasks envisioned for the Empower Rural America Initiative is to work with LightSquared and other parties to resolve any GPS issues related to precision agriculture—a GPS application that is important to farmers in rural areas.

Other responsibilities envisioned for LightSquared’s rural initiative include “working with small cities and rural communities to ensure the deployment” of LightSquared’s satellite and broadband service and positioning the network to help address “the unique public safety needs of small towns and rural communities.”

Asked if the advisory board would help determine which rural communities would receive terrestrial LightSquared networks, the LightSquared spokesman said, “I can’t imagine that wouldn’t be part of the discussion.”

LightSquared’s terrestrial wireless service can support “typical 4G speeds,” while its satellite network service is “more along the lines of several hundred kilobits per second,” the spokesman said. Like all satellite services, LightSquared’s satellite offering also has some latency.

Emergency applications
LightSquared already has launched a satellite—and that portion of its network does not appear to cause any GPS concerns. The company also has built some limited terrestrial networks on a trial basis—and those are what have triggered the concerns about interference with GPS systems.

LIghtSquared’s network already has played a role in emergency communications. During the recent tornadoes, for example, the network was used for emergency communications in Joplin, Missouri, when cellular communications experienced outages.

The government already has plans for a nationwide broadband wireless public safety network in the 700 MHz band—although at least one rural wireless group has questioned the viability of that network in rural areas (CP: FCC mandates (very) minimum interoperability level for initial broadband public safety network deployments). Asked how LightSquared’s network might fit in to those plans, the LightSquared spokesman said, “LightSquared believes that its satellite service provides a unique and powerful solution for satellite interoperability for public safety, both in conjunction with and independently from 700 MHz.”