An interesting article on MachinControlOnline touches on the recently hot topic of GPS and most noteworthy, the idea that Signals Could Be Threatened
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has substantially deviated from their standard operating procedures by granting a conditional waiver to LightSquared, a company proposing to provide Fourth Generation (4G) cellular services across the United States. The radio spectrum that has been authorized is directly adjacent to the primary GPS frequency and the signals to be broadcast will be much more powerful than the GPS signals. The actual effects on the GPS services are unknown at this time, but GNSS industry experts fear that these two signals are “fundamentally incompatible with existing GPS uses.”[1] Why is the FCC willing to jeopardize such an important service such as GPS? Why has LightSquared been put on the fast-track by the FCC to license approval? What is being done to protect the GPS user community? Is the threat real? This article cannot answer these questions, but an attempt will be made to clarify the playing field and bring the readers up to date with the latest developments.
The FCC manages the spectrum of radio frequencies including allocation, licensing and enforcement in the United States and its territories. It was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable.[2] The FCC has developed a complex schema for allocating the available frequencies and has tried to ensure that adjacent signals do not interfere with each other.
