LightSquared Testing Results – Conflicting Findings?
Posted by Steve Fravel on Monday, December 19, 2011 · 
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Last week we covered a new deal between LightSquared and FreedomPop, in addition to a list of concerns and adverse findings which could be damaging to the launch of service by LightSquared.
We noted that LightSquared appeared to be buoyed by testing resulted provided by Alcatel-Lucent. We also noted that an early draft of testing performed by the U.S. government contained information contrary to the Alcatel test. The National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), which represents eight government agencies with GPS interest, performed the testing.
At this point, the government testing appears to agree with the LightSquared results in regard to cellular interference: using the spectrum further from GPS traffic, at lower power, LightSquared does not interfere with GPS service obtained via cellular devices.
However, in a statement released last Wednesday, federal officials indicated that LightSquared’s proposed mobile satellite network would interfere with the “majority” of other tested general purposed GPS receivers, and pose dangerous disruption to airline safety systems. LightSquared is on record disagreeing with the new test result findings. Read more
First ‘LTE in Rural America’ Participant Completes Network Test
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, December 19, 2011 · ·
Pioneer Cellular, one of 13 participants in the Verizon Wireless LTE in Rural America program, announced December 16 that it has successfully completed end-to-end data testing over its new 4G LTE network in preparation for a commercial launch next spring for customers in central and western Oklahoma.
Pioneer announced its participation in the LTE in Rural America program last December. During the past year, the operator has constructed cell towers, laid fiber optic cable, and installed network hardware and software, working closely with Verizon Wireless engineers. Pioneer is now testing its new network and trial devices for speed, reliability and ease of use. Pioneer’s 4G LTE network covers more than 260,000 people in 21 counties across nearly 17,000 miles of central and western Oklahoma. Pioneer appears to be the furthest along of Verizon’s rural LTE program participants. Read more
‘Free’ Wireless Broadband
Posted by Steve Fravel on Friday, December 9, 2011 · ·
Skype and Joost co-founder Niklas Zennstrom has signed his new start-up venture FreedomPop to a deal with LightSquared. In a joint press release issued November 8, the two companies describe the 2012 launch of FreedomPop with the “ultimate objective to ensure that every American has access to fast, free and convenient communications services.” Read more
Verizon to Acquire Large Chunk of AWS Spectrum via Cable Companies
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, December 5, 2011 · ·
Verizon Wireless announced last Friday that it has agreed to pay $3.6 billion to a consortium of cable providers for 122 advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum licenses covering approximately 259 million people, or more than 85% of the U.S. population.
As part of the purchase agreement with SpectrumCo LLC — a joint venture controlled by Comcast Corp. which includes Time Warner Cable, Inc. and Bright House Networks -– the cable companies will be able to re-sell Verizon Wireless services on a wholesale basis, adding wireless to their service bundles. For its part, Verizon Wireless also will be able to sell the cable companies’ services. It’s unclear at this time if Verizon will choose to market the cable companies’ wired services in areas where is also is the incumbent telco.
Additionally, the cable companies and Verizon Wireless said that they “have formed an innovation technology joint venture for the development of technology to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services.” Read more
More LightSquared Testing
Posted by Steve Fravel on Thursday, December 1, 2011 · ·
Testing results were provided to federal officials yesterday in the ongoing LightSquared quest to provide hybrid-terrestrial LTE services. Testing in the L-band spectrum on both cellular and GPS general navigation receivers has been completed at the request of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Read more
EATEL is the First ILEC to Partner with LightSquared
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 28, 2011 · ·
LightSquared announced this morning that it has entered into a wholesale agreement today with rural ILEC and NTCA member EATEL. The agreement will allow EATEL to provide its customers with access to LightSquared’s proposed wholesale, nationwide LTE network integrated with satellite coverage.
EATEL, founded in 1935, is the incumbent local phone carrier in the Ascension and Livingston Parishes of Louisiana. Based in Gonzales, La., the telco provides high-speed Internet, phone and television service over a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network.
“LightSquared’s network not only allows EATEL to offer our existing customers wireless broadband services, it also gives us a critical competitive advantage as we expand our services into new markets,” said John D. Scanlan, EATEL president. Arthur “Smokey” Scanlan, EATEL’s chief executive officer, added that “LightSquared’s unique ability to offer both broadband and satellite connectivity over the same device will be a breakthrough product for our customers.”
With this agreement, EATEL becomes the first ILEC to sign on to LightSquared’s network.LightSquared continues to face major regulatory and technical hurdles which must be resolved before it can offer service, chief among them concerns about potential interference between its proposed network and GPS devices. LightSquared remains engaged with the NTIA, members of the military and the GPS community in testing its network and devices. Read more
Committee Launches Investigation into RUS Loan to Open Range
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 14, 2011 · ·
On October 9, the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $267 million loan to Open Range Communications, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early October.
Six bipartisan members of the committee sent a letter to Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein requesting the firm’s complete loan application and any documents related to the decision to approve it. The current balance of Open Range’s loan — the largest made to rural broadband providers between 2002 and 2008 — is $73.5 million.
The letter also notes refers to concerns from the Agriculture Department’s inspector general about the oversight of broadband loan programs in light of the fact that $340 million had been paid out despite “incomplete applications, loans that defaulted, and grant funds used for inappropriate purposes.” Read more