The FCC, LightSquared and the Definition of Ancillary

I've written four news stories this week about LightSquared and its push to start operation of a national broadband cellular network that interferes with GPS receivers essential to a wide range of military and civil applications, including aircraft navigation.

The LightSquared/GPS story has become so complex and byzantine, that along the way, the origin of this mess has become obscured. So, here it is:

LightSquared started out as a satellite communications company known as American Mobile Satellite, which provided satellite phone service in North America way back in 1988, operating in a spectrum band close to GPS.

Through a series of deals, Philip Falcone, venture capitalist and chief executive officer of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, ended up owning American Mobile Satellite, which in 2001 received from the Federal Communications Commission permission to operate ancillary terrestrial transmitters to fill in spaces where its satellites did not reach, such as urban canyons.

As we all know, ancillary means secondary. But this January the FCC broadened the definition of ancillary in regards to LightSquared to allow the company to establish a network of 40,000 terrestrial transmitters without the use of its satellites, if the company could demonstrate that network did not cause interference to GPS receivers.

Two rounds of test confirmed that LightSquared does interfere with GPS receivers, but the company continues to press its case, as it could eventually end up with valuable terrestrial spectrum at little cost that other carriers have paid billions of dollars for in FCC auctions.

LightSquared continues to press its case, and it all goes back to the FCC assault on the language, with its very generous definition of ancillary -- a situation that could have been avoided by rigorous adherence to Webster's.

I have one Christmas wish: Dear Santa, please make next week a LightSquared-free week.