Globalstar Critics Continue To Point to Lack of Good Data To Justify TLPS
Globalstar critics continue to hammer on what they say is a lack of transparency about its broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS). In an ex parte filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 13-213, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Microsoft, NCTA, Sony…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Electronics and the Wi-Fi Alliance said Globalstar's TLPS demonstrations don't back up FCC approval of spectrum use for the broadband, especially since it didn't say whether it "fixed the problems that rendered previous demonstrations unreliable." The problems include transmitters operating at low power levels, testing unrepresentative equipment and not testing for TLPS effect on latency or jitter, they said: Any mitigation plan involving Globalstar addressing interference issues after it gets complaints "is unworkable." The same critics -- minus Sony -- have criticized Globalstar's evidence in the past for not being complete (see 1512110068). In a statement Thursday, Globalstar said, "The only 'problems' that occurred during the Commission demonstration were Cable and Bluetooth's inability to show any interference that would realistically be caused by TLPS. The lack of any such 'problems' continues to be confirmed by Globalstar and its nationally recognized engineering consultants in TLPS deployments in Chicago and D.C. where dramatic consumer benefits were generated by the addition of TLPS' clear channel to existing wireless networks. In Chicago, throughput nearly doubled on the tested devices as existing Wi-Fi congestion was offloaded to Globalstar's clean TLPS Channel 14." The deployment at Washington School for Girls in Washington, D.C., "has allowed the school to significantly increase the number of students on its wireless network with no decrease in service quality," it said. "It is time for the Commission to take final action and allow this innovative new solution into the marketplace." The filing said ESA and others met with a representative of Commissioner Michael O'Rielly.