WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) introduced an amendment this week that prohibits the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using any appropriated funds to allow LightSquared to build out a broadband network until the agency can prove the expansion will not interfere with the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

“There is too much at stake in interfering with a tool we all use, and on which our public safety and national security depend so heavily,” said Roberts. “The FCC must be involved in this process and the commissioners must require an objective demonstration of non-interference before LightSquared’s system gets the go-ahead. GPS is too important for any interference to be tolerated.”

The amendment comes after the International Bureau, a sub-organization within the FCC, granted a conditional waiver earlier this year to allow the company LightSquared, to build 40,000 ground stations throughout the United States for terrestrial deployment of its proposed broadband wireless network. Those stations could cause widespread interference to nearby GPS receivers, because the spectrum used by LightSquared is adjacent to the spectrum used by GPS. So far, LightSquared has failed to objectively demonstrate that its network would not interfere with GPS equipment.

The amendment is attached to the Financial Services and Government Affairs Appropriations Bill which is currently before the Senate. A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio), and was approved earlier this year.

For more about Lightsquared see also the Amerisurv Lightsquare Watch Page