Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Inhofe
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) held a press conference with key stakeholders to discuss the negative impact the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Ligado order will have on the daily life of Americans and announce the introduction of the bipartisan RETAIN GPS Act. The Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications Act requires Ligado to cover the cost for correcting any interference their operations create for the public or private sector.
A live stream of the press conference is available here.
Additional information about the RETAIN GPS Act can be found here.
Excerpts of the remarks for each speaker, as prepared for delivery, are available below.
Excerpts from U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe:
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission approved an application by Ligado Networks to repurpose federal spectrum in a way that will drastically interfere with GPS and satellite communications…
…I’m going to pause here for a minute to drive home what this actually means for every American. Here are some of the day to day activities that will be difficult when we’re experiencing GPS interference from Ligado:
A big one – using your credit or debit card. Another – making a phone call. Here is one most people don’t expect: energy, whether that is filling up your tank at the pump or managing electrical grids to light our homes. We rely on GPS timing to safely operate underground pipelines and our electricity grid.
Working out. A study last year found that one-fifth – 20 percent – of all Americans use a fitness tracker or smartwatch, the majority of which use GPS to count steps and track distance. Taking a flight. Commercial and civil aviation rely on GPS navigation and satellite communications to operate safely.
And, while no one hopes they ever need a fire truck, ambulance or other emergency services – 9/11 operators and EMS use GPS and satellite communication to locate a caller and navigate as quickly as possible. We know in these instances that every minute is critical…
…That’s why I am introducing legislation, the Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications Act of 2021—the RETAIN Act.
My legislation ensures federal agencies, state governments and all others negatively impacted by the actions of a private actor are not left holding the bag when it comes to costs – and worse, aren’t put in the position where they have to push the costs onto American consumers…
Excerpts from the Honorable Robert McDowell, former FCC Commissioner:
…I know from having had the honor of serving on the Federal Communications Commission that protecting critical infrastructure, public safety and consumer services is almost always a bipartisan policy goal. Unfortunately, however, last year my old agency made a big mistake by approving an application by a speculative spectrum flipper named Ligado to let it “rezone” its satellite spectrum licenses for terrestrial use and cause harmful interference to the satellite communications and GPS services that have been operating for decades in the satellite spectrum neighborhood called the “L-Band.”
Today’s bold and courageous bill takes an important step in trying to correct some of the damage the FCC’s order caused. Spectrum engineers from across the private sector and 14 federal agencies opposed the FCC’s action, but it went ahead anyway. It is estimated that the harmful interference that land-based radio emissions by Ligado could cost the American economy billions of dollars by impairing satellite communications and GPS services. The FCC’s order virtually ignored this dramatic reality. To try to compensate for the harms and costs caused by the FCC, the RETAIN Act requires Ligado to replace both government and private sector devices and systems. A key element of the bill requires Ligado to replace entire systems that incorporate satcom or GPS functionalities on an integrated basis. Satcom and GPS services have become so integral to high-tech devices and systems, including defense systems, that mere software patches and chip replacements would not only be insufficient to fix the damage but could degrade entire systems and add new points of failure as well. Accordingly, all damaged systems would have to be replaced.
If Ligado is so confident that its terrestrial services will not cause harmful interference to satcom and GPS, then it should support this bill because it would never owe a penny. But its opposition to this bill would reveal that Ligado knows that its planned land-based services will indeed cause harmful interference and that it will owe tens of billions of dollars in replacement costs…
Excerpts from Diana Furchtgott-Roth, adjunct professor of economics, George Washington University, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the Department of Transportation
…Look at page 52 out of the 74-page FCC Order and Authorization on Ligado, released in April 2020. It says:
“We agree that it is critical to ensure that U.S. Government devices do not experience harmful interference. ……we adopt several requirements, including processes and conditions, to ensure that Ligado takes all necessary mitigation measures to prevent or remediate any potential harmful interference to U.S. Government devices, including devices used by the military, that are identified both pre- and post-deployment of Ligado’s network. The requirements that we are adopting are necessary and in the public interest and consistent with the Commission’s goal of ensuring successful co-existence between Ligado’s operations, GPS services, and other services on adjacent bands.”
Well, what about everyone else?…
… If Ligado is going to damage satellite communication and GPS, it should pay the costs of ordinary Americans—not just the costs of the Federal government….
Excerpts from Stacy Sheard, Helicopter Captain, EJM.
…Through my years of flying, I can unequivocally state that GPS and satellite communications is essential to flight operations. Use of GPS is fundamental to the continued safe and effective operation of our industries and professions, where false or missing GPS data can easily result in a tragic accident.
The harmful interference we are talking about does not mean slower Wi-Fi or an occasional dropped cell phone call. It means less safe rotorcraft operation, the disruption of critical weather systems and the degradation of emergency communications.
Helicopters are versatile aircraft, and because of their unique vertical flight maneuverability abilities, helicopters take on many critical operations that occur at lower altitudes, such as search and rescue, air ambulance missions, precision agriculture operations, pipeline and power-line patrols, and law enforcement. Such operations, even if conducted under visual flight rules, rely on GPS-dependent systems for obstacle and terrain alerting systems. Such enhancements have proven to be effective at alerting pilots of potential conflicts and been shown to significantly improve flight safety. These GPS-based enhancements are especially valuable during operations at night or in suboptimal weather conditions or at locations in which aircrews are not familiar with local terrain. These GPS-dependent systems alert pilots of a conflict with an obstruction or terrain sufficiently in advance so that the pilot can maneuver to avoid it.
Helicopter pilots live in low altitudes, often in close proximity to flight obstructions. A loss of navigational reliability would be distracting for operators, increase crew workloads and could make it difficult to safely navigate. For our members, who operate right in the thick of it, where there could be dense deployments of towers and potentially millions of Ligado handsets in operation, aircrafts could potentially experience repeated loss of GPS and satellite air to ground communications when needed the most.
So what does this look like in the real world? Consider a medevac helicopter. It’s a dark night and there is an accident on a highway in an area of steep terrain you are responding to. You know you can conduct your flight safely and bring the accident victim to the medical care they so urgently need. But what happens when you can no longer your navigation system due to unreliability caused by interference?
What are our mitigation avenues? Replacing GPS and satellite communications equipment will be expensive, driving up costs for operators everywhere. For the economically hard-hit parts of our industry, this is an unacceptable additional burden…