Trimble VP addresses congressional subcommittee: Lightsquared.

Testimony of Jim Kirkland, Vice President and General Counsel of Trimble
Navigation Limited
Hearing of the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee of the House
Appropriations Committee

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this
opportunity to testify. My testimony does not relate to a funding issue.
Rather, I am here to present the committee with information regarding an
issue of key importance to the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration and all Americans.

Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conditionally
approved an application for a waiver allowing a company called
LightSquared to repurpose the satellite spectrum immediately neighboring
that of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for use in extremely
high-powered ground-based transmissions. In doing so, the FCC waived its
own rules, acting with unusual speed. The section of spectrum at issue
is in the L Band 1 (1525 - 1559 MHz) and is immediately adjacent to the
GPS section (1559 - 1610 MHz).

The FCC's action has caused serious concern within the GPS industry and
user community since this planned use is fundamentally incompatible with
existing GPS uses. Initial technical analyses have shown that the
distant, low-powered GPS signals would receive substantial interference
from high-powered, close-proximity transmissions from a network of
ground stations. The consequences of disruption to the GPS signals are
far reaching, likely to affect large portions of the population and the
federal government. Therefore, it is imperative that the new system not
be deployed unless it can be conclusively guaranteed that the GPS users
are fully protected from radio interference.

The Global Positioning System, or GPS, was first launched more than 30
years ago and is now a critical and extremely reliable part of our
national infrastructure. Millions use it routinely every day. The
satellites which feed GPS data to the Earth's surface were initially
intended for military purposes. Following the 1983 Korean Airlines
disaster, President Reagan announced that GPS would be available for
civilian purposes and in 1996 GPS was declared by President Clinton to
be a dual-use system with an Interagency GPS Executive Board established
to manage it as a national asset. Taxpayers have invested billions of
dollars in the system over the decades, while the private sector has
invested in both civilian and military uses. Today, GPS is a national
asset, from which every taxpayer can benefit through both consumer and
professional GPS equipped devices. The Global Positioning System has
stimulated a multi-billion dollar global industry, and technology
leaders such as Trimble contribute both to the domestic economy and to
US exports.

The swath of spectrum where GPS satellites transmit, the L Band, has
long been reserved for satellite to earth communications of various
types. It is fundamental to sound spectrum planning that like uses be
grouped together to ensure similarity of technical characteristics and
avoid interference. Lightsquared's proposal to build 40,000 terrestrial
base stations operating at 1 billion times the power levels of GPS
signals as received on earth represents a tectonic change in the use of
this band. While the GPS community lauds efforts to add new broadband
competition and free up spectrum for mobile uses, this must be done in
the context of rational, long term spectrum planning, rather than the
rushed, ad hoc waiver process followed by the FCC to date. Spectrum is a
public asset and it should not lightly be handed over at the behest of a
private party. More fundamentally, the laws of physics cannot be waived
by the FCC. This is a serious problem with no obvious solution.

Trimble has been a leader in the GPS industry since it first began. My
company manufactures and sells commercial use GPS devices and services.
You are probably more familiar with consumer companies, such as Garmin,
who sell similar devices for individual use. Trimble employs over 4,000
people worldwide and over 2,000 people in the US. Trimble sells many GPS
devices to the federal government, to the Department of Defense, the
Department of Interior, The Department of Homeland Security, The
Department of Transportation and others, including the US Air Force and
Air National Guard, US Army, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Marine
Corps, US Navy, US Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency,
General Services Administration, National Parks Service, US Forest
Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Bureau of Land
Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US
Environmental Protection Agency, US Geological Survey, Bureau of
Reclamation, NASA and NOAA.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA),
which falls under the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee, has a
substantial stake in the outcome of this FCC decision. As the Executive
Branch representative on telecommunications issues, the NTIA registered
the objection of eight federal agencies with the FCC, including the
Department of Defense. The NTIA letter states that it received letters
from: the Space-Based Positioning Navigation & Timing, National
Coordination Office, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Office of the
Secretary of the Department of Transportation, the Office of the
Secretary of the Department of Interior, the Federal Aviation
Administration, and the Office of the Manager of the National
Communication System raising concerns with the Lightsquared proposal.

Initial tests indicate that each LightSquared ground station will cause
varying levels of interference with GPS within miles of the ground
stations, and LightSquared plans to build as many as 40,000 such ground
stations. If GPS is interfered with, critical private and public sector
activity will be adversely affected, including:

*        Public Safety: Public safety depends on GPS technology daily
because first responders such as law enforcement, fire fighters, and
emergency medical personnel rely on it day-in and day-out to provide
critical instant location and route information. Disruptions to the GPS
transmission pose a serious threat to public safety.
*        Homeland Security: GPS equipment is widely used by the
Departments of Defense, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Homeland
Security. Federal, state, and local government employees rely on GPS
equipment in disaster response, public safety, and security and in the
management of our national assets and infrastructure, as do emergency
services for rapid response, dispatch, and accident investigation.
*        Consumers: Millions of Americans use GPS-enabled consumer
devices in their cars and on their cell phones and other hand-held
devices as vital, reliable every day navigational tools.
*        Aviation: GPS receivers used in thousands of aircraft could be
jammed within miles of LightSquared's transmissions. GPS, together with
the Wide Area Augmentation System or WAAS (which will also be affected)
has long been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for
aircraft navigation and FAA-approved GPS instrument approaches now
provide a landing system option at the many U.S. airports not equipped
with land-based instrument landing systems. GPS also plays a critical
role in the FAA Next Generation Air Transportation System, which will
modernize air traffic control and address the nation's need for expanded
air traffic capacity without compromising air safety.
*        Transportation: GPS equipment is used in critical asset
management activities for our national road and rail infrastructure,
improving efficiency, lowering costs and enabling better decision
making. The Federal Rail Administration's Positive Train Control mandate
further drives the use of GPS to prevent train-to-train collisions,
derailments, and casualties or injuries to railway workers. In addition,
GPS is used to help fleets lower fuel consumption and improve their
carbon footprint.
*        Agriculture: Farmers use GPS to improve efficiency and crop
yields, reduce environmental impact and comply with U.S. Agriculture
reporting regulations.
*        Forestry: The U.S. Forestry industry and Forest Service use GPS
in forest land management and for Forest Automation Systems which
improve logging efficiency and reduce environmental harm.
*        Engineering and Construction: The U.S. building, construction,
and civil engineering industry - one of the economic sectors most
severely impacted by the recent recession - has made large investments
in the use of GPS technology to modernize and automate construction
sites, machines and processes. GPS is also used to monitor the movement
of physical infrastructure such as bridges, dams, mines, and other
natural and manmade structures. Disruption to this service could
negatively impact positive economic and societal improvements.
*        Surveying, Mapping, and Land Management: Interruption of the
national geodetic infrastructure would disrupt surveying and mapping
activities necessary for land title transactions, land development,
building and civil engineering activity, and accident investigations. It
would also disrupt the field creation, maintenance, and use of
geographic information systems (GIS) databases that underpin our
national digital mapping infrastructure.
*        Utilities: Utility services nationwide including electricity,
water, gas and telecommunications depend on GPS signals in a number of
ways. GPS signals are used to synchronize the power grid. Other uses
include synchronizing networks, maintaining and managing infrastructure
and coordinating rapid responses to network outages and incidents -
activities that are all essential to restoring disrupted services as
quickly as possible.
*        Natural Resources: Natural resources industries engaged in the
exploration, production and distribution of energy and minerals rely on
the GPS service throughout their operations.
*        Disaster Management and Scientific Research: High-accuracy GPS
networks are deployed along crustal faults and around volcanoes. In the
U.S, the data is used to study and better understand the crustal
movements that cause seismic hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions. In addition to disaster prevention and relief, GPS is also
used for weather services and scientific research.

In recognition of the potential interference to GPS receivers, the FCC,
as part of its January 26, 2011 modification order, required the
establishment of a working group to bring together LightSquared and the
GPS community. This working group will study the interference concerns,
identify measures to prevent interference and produce a report for FCC
review no later than June 15, 2011. The working group process will be
complete once the FCC, in consultation with NTIA, concludes that "the
harmful interference concerns have been resolved and sends a letter to
LightSquared stating that the process is complete."

The GPS industry is committed to work with LightSquared, FCC, NTIA and
other interested parties in this working group process. However, we
believe that additional safeguards are needed. We recommend:


1. The FCC must make clear, and the NTIA must ensure, that
LightSquared's license modification is contingent on the outcome of the
mandated study. The study must be comprehensive, objective, and based on
correct assumptions about existing GPS uses rather than theoretical
possibilities. The views of Lightsquared, as an interested party, are
entitled to no special weight in this process.

2. The FCC should make clear that LightSquared and their
investors should not proceed to make any investment in operating
facilities prior to a final FCC decision (or at least make it explicit
that they do so at their own risk). While this is the FCC's established
policy, it failed to make this explicit in its order.

3. Further, the FCC's, and NTIA's, finding that "harmful
interference concerns have been resolved" must mean "resolved to the
satisfaction of preexisting GPS providers and users."

4. Resolution of interference has to be the obligation of
LightSquared, not the extensive GPS user community of millions of
citizens. LightSquared must bear the costs of preventing interference
emanating from their devices, and if there is no way to prevent
interference, it should not be permitted to operate. GPS users or
providers should not have to bear any of the consequences of
LightSquared's actions.

5. This is a matter of critical national interest. There must be
a reasonable opportunity for public comment of at least 45 days on the
report produced by the working group and further FCC actions on the
LightSquared modification order should take place with the approval of a
majority of the commissioners, not at the bureau level.



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