Feds, DoD & Lawmakers Oppose FCC’s Ligado 5G Plan

UPDATED TO ADD REP. TURNER, STEFANIK STATEMENTS. WASHINGTON: The FCC’s ruling yesterday to to approve Ligado’s controversial plan to create a 5G mobile communications network has dismayed much of the federal government and congressional defense committees, but it garnered praise from elsewhere, including from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“The Department continues to support domestic 5G options, but not at the risk of crippling our GPS networks. Nearly a dozen other federal agencies have joined us in opposing this proposal,” tweeted DoD Secretary Mark Esper yesterday.

While it is as yet unclear how DoD will move to counteract the FCC ruling to minimize affects on GPS, sources say the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are considering a wide range of options that include hearings, language in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and/or other legislation designed to limit future FCC powers on issues involving DoD. However, given strong White House support (see Pompeo) for the FCC ruling as part of its effort to counter China’s dominance in the use of 5G, it is questionable whether Congress could muster a veto-proof course of action.

UPDATE BEGINS. Republican Rep. Mike Turner, ranking member of the HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, ranking member of the HASC Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, called the decision “alarming,” in a statement today, saying that  it “jeopardizes America’s national and economic security.”

“We have been extremely vocal on the need for America to regain our authority as a global leader in 5G and offer a realistic alternative to China’s Huawei. However, Ligado’s plan does neither. America’s appetite for spectrum will only increase, and the FCC’s actions sets a dangerous precedent that may force Congress to revisit this issue,” they warned. UPDATE ENDS.

GPS users across US industry, from airplane pilots to FedEx to Lockheed Martin, have cried foul about the ruling, convinced that it will require costly replacement or upgrades of current receiver equipment.

“The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) is deeply disappointed by today’s decision, which appears to ignore the well-documented views of the expert agencies charged with preserving the integrity of GPS, specifically on the critical issue of what constitutes harmful interference to users of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS),” GPSIA Executive Director J. David Grossman wrote in a statement yesterday.

The FCC’s five commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the April 16 recommendations of Chairman Ajit Pai, to approve Ligado’s plan to convert its L-band spectrum currently licensed for satellite operations to use by a terrestrial based 5G mobile wireless communications network.

The plan has been vociferously opposed for at least a decade, by DoD and a number of other government agencies, ranging from the Department of Transportation to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). In a rash of comments and letters to the FCC in the run-up to the decision, DoD and other officials insisted that the technical testing done on the Ligado proposal showed, as the Air Force stated in a Feb. 10 letter, “unacceptable operational impacts to the warfighter and adversely affect the military potential of GPS by negatively impacting GPS receivers.”

Congress jumped into the fray earlier this week, with leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on both sides of the aisle railing against the FCC’s failure to take DoD warnings about GPS seriously. For example, SASC Chair James Inhofe called the expected approval “astonishingly misguided”  on Friday.

On the other hand, the FCC’s ruling garnered praise from Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr, as well as much of the terrestrial wireless community, the FCC was keen to point out in a press release yesterday. Pompeo and Barr are well known for their extremely close ties to President Trump.

“I commend Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Pai’s draft order that would release the L-Band spectrum. Quick action on this order, in conjunction with the allocation of a portion of the C-Band for 5G, is vital to our national security and will help ensure that the United States is the global leader in advanced technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things, edge computing, and the next generation of telemedicine. Accelerating the deployment of 5G is essential to our country’s growth, and global economic security,” Pompeo said in an April 16 statement on Pai’s draft approval.

Barr has been newly appointed head of Trump’s interagency “Team Telecom” charged with countering China’s march to dominance in the 5G marketplace that the White House believes puts US critical infrastructure at risk.