US military is furious at FCC over 5G plan that could interfere with GPS
FCC accuses military of “baseless fear-mongering” in fight over Ligado network. …
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GPS is facing a major interference threat from a 5G network approved by the Federal Communications Commission, US military officials told Congress in a hearing on Wednesday.
In testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Department of Defense Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy disputed the FCC’s claims that conditions imposed on the Ligado network will protect GPS from interference.
When the FCC approved Ligado’s plan last month, the agency required a 23MHz guard band to provide a buffer between the Ligado cellular network and GPS. Deasy argued that this guard band won’t prevent interference with GPS signals:
The Order includes the 23MHz “guard band” to protect GPS L1 receivers from Ligado’s terrestrial-based network. GPS receivers are designed to receive signals from space and would be overpowered by this terrestrial network regardless of this protection. Despite this guard band, many varieties of GPS receivers would still suffer interference. To be clear, Ligado’s proposal is to field a terrestrial-based network. GPS has a satellite-based space segment that transmits radio signals to users. This means that GPS L1 receivers are designed to tolerate interference from space systems in adjacent spectrum, but not to tolerate interference from terrestrial systems in the adjacent band.
Results from tests by federal agencies show that “conditions in this FCC order will not prevent impacts to millions
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