The ISSUE

Ligado Networks is a satellite communications company with plans to deploy a broadband network that would threaten the reception capability of hundreds of millions of GPS devices. While the company's plans were halted for several years because of interference concerns, the FCC in April 2020 issued an order allowing the company to proceed. This order was adopted despite numerous concerns raised by Congress and virtually all federal agencies that rely on GPS to protect the country's national and economic security.

The FCC admitted in its order that there are cases where both government and private GPS receivers will suffer harmful interference. And while it required Ligado to upgrade or replace federal government devices, it offered no such protection for the countless private GPS users who will be forced to suffer interference to their GPS devices or to pay to replace them.

Ligado has not begun to deploy its network, but the FCC order permitting it to do so currently stands despite considerable efforts from a broad range of stakeholders to reverse it. Industries including aerospace, agriculture, transportation, mapping, boating, weather, public safety, satellite communications, and surveying are working to ensure that private sector GPS users are protected from this dangerous, ill-advised decision.