On Aug. 8, during a session at APCO International’s Conference, LightSquared squared off against Andy Seybold in a presentation attended by about 40 persons. Geoffrey Stearn, vice president of spectrum development at LightSquared, did a presentation on the history of the company and addressed the concerns regarding its network’s interference with GPS. He said he wanted to dispel the myths that have been presented.

Seybold presented “déjà vu All Over Again,” a presentation likening the matter to the Sprint Nextel rebanding issue that members of public safety is well aware of.

Stearn also provided a description of the services LightSquared will provide. Its intent is to offer, on a wholesale basis, a combination of terrestrial and satellite services that will provide universal LTE broadband access. He reiterated the fact that the company actually proposed this service, which was licensed in 2004, 10 years ago.

After recent testing, the company determined that its network will operate in the lower part of the 1.5 GHz band to minimize interference potential to GPS. Stearn further stated that, during testing, public safety navigation and location equipment was not affected. There has been issues related to simulcast radio system GPS timing equipment, and LightSquared is prepared to replace existing antenna systems with filtered antennas that will not be affected by the LightSquared transmitters.

It is LightSquared’s position that the FCC should maintain the integrity of its regulations by protecting licensed system operators. GPS is an unlicensed service.

Seybold started his presentation by stating that the original license for LightSquared’s predecessor was only for fill-in sites and not an entire network. He then explained that since GPS receivers are designed to work with extremely small signals, below the thermal noise level, any increase in spectrum noise will affect their operation. He then stated that more than 90% of the comments the FCC has received in the comment period are opposed to allowing the LightSquared operation. This includes public safety, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense.  He asked if LightSquared was willing to establish a test system of 50 sites for 90 days to see what the true affects are.

A key issue is that, although LightSquared has asked to move to a lower part of its spectrum, it has not agreed to do further testing in the new spectrum. Stearn reiterated that they have no plans to do such testing.

A question-and-answer session was held for the members of the audience, who — for the most part — expressed little faith in LightSquared efforts.

At the end of the session, Stearn was asked specifically how the company would react to consumer reports of failures in their consumer grade GPS units. He responded that the system is designed not to interfere.

APCO member and past president John Powell was asked his opinion. He believed that more testing is required and that, if the company doesn’t test, perhaps millions of letters to the FCC would be required.