Bipartisan bill would require Ligado to cover costs of any GPS user

By Jaspreet Gill  / June 23, 2021

A bipartisan congressional group yesterday introduced legislation that would hold Ligado Networks responsible for covering the costs of both public and private Global Positioning System users affected by the company's use of the L-Band.

The Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications Act, or RETAIN GPS and Satellite Communications Act, was introduced by Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Mike Rounds (R-SD).

The legislation requires Ligado "to cover the cost for correcting any interference their operations create for the public or private sector" and outlines all areas the company would be responsible for, including engineering, software, research, site acquisition and labor costs.

The bill follows a Federal Communications Commission decision last April that approved Ligado's controversial request to deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band, a range of frequencies between 1 to 2 gigahertz. The company's network will support 5G and Internet of Things services.

Top defense lawmakers, including Inhofe, made desperate attempts to convince the FCC to reject Ligado's request, saying the company's planned usage will likely harm military capabilities and have a major impact on the national economy and asking then-President Trump to intervene.

The Defense and Transportation departments also released a joint statement last April opposing the company's proposal.

The FCC's unanimous approval came with conditions to "protect incumbents from harmful interference," including requiring Ligado to provide its own 23 megahertz guard-band in its licensed spectrum and limiting the power levels of its base stations, according to an FCC announcement.

While Ligado would be responsible for upgrading or replacing government devices that experienced interference from the company's operations, the FCC wasn't specific in its decision about the full extent of its costs and remained silent on the private sector, according to a June 22 press release from Inhofe's office.

"The April 2020 Ligado Order from the FCC recognized the likelihood of interference to GPS signals and requires Ligado to pay the federal government the costs for repairs," the press release states. "However, 99% of the more than 900 million GPS devices found in the United States are used by the private sector, consumers, as well as state and local governments; under the current Order, they -- or their consumers -- would have to bear the costs."