Broadband Network Will Jam GPS in Vegas - FAA Warns

[The Sushi Bandit]

Source: Current.com

The Federal Aviation Administration is warning that navigation systems based on GPS technology may be "unreliable or unavailable" in about a 350 mile-radius that includes Las Vegas. LightSquared - a Reston, Va., company that plans to deploy an ultra-fast nationwide wireless broadband network of 40,000 transmitters and cell towers - is field testing its equipment in Nevada southeast of Las Vegas.

The tests are part of a deal LightSquared worked out with the Federal Communications Commission. The company has rights to frequencies located very close in the electromagnetic spectrum to those used for GPS. But the company's signals will be stronger than GPS signals, raising concern that they'll jam GPS in the vicinity of LightSquared transmitters.



Read more: http://current.com/news/93232574_broadband-network-will-jam-gps-in-vegas-faa-warns.htm

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One must assume that it will be lights out on your car's and your cell phone GPS

[dipsydoodle]

1. Maybe some have a vague recollection

of something called a map.

[valerief]

2. Bwah!

:rofl:

[BadtotheboneBob]

9. Dagnabbit!

Ya beat me to it... No fair! Haha

[Citizen Worker]

11. But many cannot figure how to fold them.

[lbrtbell]

18. This.

If you're not a deliveryman or something similar, what do you really need a GPS system for? To find the nearest Starbucks?

[freshwest]

19. But it says FAA. Could it affect airplanes? Just curious.

[boppers]

21. They're worried it *might* affect airplanes that are relying on GPS.

Fortunately, learning to be a pilot requires you to be able to fly without GPS (and how to deal with a whole slew of other circumstances).

[Javaman]

23. It's one of those things with all the squiggly lines on it, right? nt

[boppers]

3. From midnight to 3 am. For 10 whole days.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/may/14/testing-new-wireless-network-could-cause-gps-outag/

It's a test, folks, the warning is just in case something goes awry.

[ret5hd]

4. When, exactly, does one more need GPS than from midnight to 3AM...in Vegas?

I ask you, when? When?

[jberryhill]

12. At that time of night in Vegas, sometimes its better not to know where you are /nt

[TheMadMonk]

14. Some of those "ranches" are hard to find. /nt

[htuttle]

5. Wouldn't want to be a taxicab dispatcher on those nights

Oy...911 might have a great time, too.

[jberryhill]

16. Like a lot of western towns, Vegas is easier to navigate than eastern cities

It's all on a grid.

[htuttle]

26. The problem isn't going to be the drivers not finding their way

The problem is going to be that the dispatchers won't know where their vehicles are.

[AndyTiedye]

6. There is So Much RF In Vegas, GPS (and Everything Else) Can be Kind of Flakey Anyway

Once we were driving home from Las Vegas, and the GPS decided to take us by way of Area 51 for some reason.

[Xithras]

7. I still think they greased some palms.

5 day public comment period over the Thanksgiving holiday, an unprecedented license allowing terrestrial broadcasting in the satellite bands, owners who are already under investigation for breaking the law.

Every major cell phone and GPS device manufacturer who has looked at it, up to and INCLUDING the U.S. Air Force, has said that the network is a BAD IDEA and will cause serious interference problems. Garmin was even more blunt, declaring that LightSquared makes GPS unuseable in urban areas.

Hope you enjoyed your TomTom while it lasted, because LightSquared wants to turn it into a paperweight. And what about turn by turn maps and directions on your iPhone and Android? History (but that's "OK" according to the FCC, because it's only "intermittently" history). And the proliferation of companies that are pushing geolocation solutions for everything from advertising to online dating? If you own stock, NOW is the time to sell!

I'm floored that the media has avoided this story so far.

[The Sushi Bandit]

13. I share you concern

Once this network is up and running the billions $$$ spent on GPS satellites is trash

[Javaman]

24. Skynet becomes self aware. nt

[cloudbase]

8. That's almost 385,000

square miles of airspace that may be affected. It may very well have an effect on some parts of transitioning flights through the area, and will definitely have an effect on GPS coupled approaches within the area.

[Downwinder]

10. Does "a Reston, Va., company" say it all? Regeneration of

spook net?

[freshwest]

17. As in Xe doing domestic testing on disrupting communications?

[boppers]

20. Uhm, if this is about disrupting GPS...

That's already built *into* the GPS system, by design, so the US can shut off entire sections of the world anytime they want, in order to disrupt enemies who are relying on it.

[Canuckistanian]

15. This is insane

The RF (Radio Frequency) industry goes to GREAT LENGTHS to avoid interfering with GPS signals. Even military satellites have VERY PRECISE filters to avoid jamming the relatively weak GPS signal.

It's practically a REQUIREMENT that any new design or service NOT interfere with GPS.

Now a company gets to BLAST a signal close to GPS - and they get an exemption from FCC regulations?

Who got paid off here?

[boppers]

22. It's not on the GPS frequencies.

It's "nearby".

So, they need to test if that's going to be a problem, before the FCC will let them go ahead.

Hence, this 10 day test.

[Canuckistanian]

25. At that power, there are always sidebands

And they can easily swamp a sensitive GPS receiver. If their filtering isn't perfect, you've got interference.

[boppers]

28. So, is this really a test of the quality of GPS equipment?

Or, perhaps phrasing it better, this is a test of both systems, to see if they can co-exist, and at what power levels.

[The Sushi Bandit]

27. good question!