How The FCC Plans To Destroy GPS – A Simple Explanation
Ugh, c'mon, people.  The FCC isn't planning to destroy GPS.  I hate the FCC as much as the next guy on the Internet, but that's too ridiculous for consideration.<p>What they're trying to do is balance the legitimate right that one user has to a piece of spectrum, with the legitimate right that a lot of users have to some that's adjacent.  They'd be looking at nothing but an endless series of lawsuits if they told LightSquared that they couldn't use their spectrum (which they have a license to), particularly since LightSquared has a proposal which -- yes, on paper, but what's on paper matters -- says they'll not interfere with GPS.<p>It looks much more like the FCC is giving LightSquared an opportunity, either to show that they can make the system workable, or to come up with enough rope to hang themselves, one way or the other.  If LightSquared can't resolve the interference issues, then the FCC will have a much better case for an enforcement action than they currently do.  (Although an enforcement action might require a rule change, because it's not clear that they would actually be in violation of the rules; front-end overload is typically the receiver's problem, not the transmitter's.)<p>I'm all for spectrum users being vigilant, and perhaps GPS users need an organization analogous to the ARRL (which protects the Amateur Radio spectrum, and successfully defeated the shitty BPL implementations that were kicking around a few years ago) to nip these things in the bud.  But the conspiracy-theorizing is a bit rich.