Some believe a serious threat to the reliability and viability of the Global Positioning System (GPS) has risen.
LightSquared, has been granted a conditional waiver by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to build 40,000 ground stations in the US that may cause widespread interference to GPS signals; endangering a national utility which millions of Americans rely on every day.
LightSquared plans to transmit ground-based radio signals that are said to be one billion or more times more powerful as received on earth than GPS's low-powered satellite-based signals. This potentially may cause significant interference impacting millions of GPS receivers.
I have not determined if there is a competitive company trying to block/slow-down LightSquared, or if this is a real threat. Notwithstanding, I thought you may wish to visit http://www.saveourgps.org/ and start your own research into the matter.
Related Field Guide Post: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/10/lightsquared-and-gps-still-in-news.html
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