K-STREET, 10,000 FEET: FCC order could threaten "military communications, private satellite communication, GPS, agriculture, aviation," coalition warns

THE LOWDOWN:

• A coalition led by the Satellite Safety Alliance (SSA) issued the warning, saying that government and commercial services that could be affected include “military communications, private satellite communication, GPS, agriculture, aviation, weather forecasting, and more.”

• The coalition’s concerns include that “an independent technical analysis completed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (‘NAS’) in 2022 as mandated by Congress in 2021 has shown that the Order is inadequate to protect incumbent services from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations.”

• The signatories “represent a broad cross-section of the federal and commercial user bases of Global Positioning System (‘GPS’), satellite communications, and weather forecasting services,” they note in their letters.

• The FCC is helmed by a top Trump ally, Chairman Brendan Carr, who has previously spoken with the Reporter about his priorities.

Almost 100 companies and organizations want President Donald Trump and lawmakers to work with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse a controversial decision on its five-year anniversary that could “threaten a wide range of critical government and commercial services.”

A coalition led by the Satellite Safety Alliance (SSA) issued the warning, saying that government and commercial services that could be affected include “military communications, private satellite communication, GPS, agriculture, aviation, weather forecasting, and more.”

At issue is the 2020 so-called Ligado Order, which the coalition argued in letters to President Donald Trump and top lawmakers — exclusively obtained by the Washington Reporter — that the order has led to “ongoing and unresolved concerns about the harmful interference risk that would be created by operation of terrestrial mobile service in portions of the L-band.”

“The FCC’s Ligado Order has faced unprecedented opposition, including from 14 federal agencies and over 90 organizations representing huge swaths of the economy — from aviation and agriculture to science and manufacturing,” SSA said. “Rarely does any issue garner agreement from such a wide and divergent group of constituencies.”

The coalition’s concerns include that “an independent technical analysis completed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (‘NAS’) in 2022 as mandated by Congress in 2021 has shown that the Order is inadequate to protect incumbent services from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations.” They also note that “Ligado has filed for bankruptcy, and the nature of Ligado’s operations in the United States is once again shifting.”

The signatories “represent a broad cross-section of the federal and commercial user bases of Global Positioning System (‘GPS’), satellite communications, and weather forecasting services,” they note in their letters. Leading industry groups, including Airlines for America, the American Farm Bureau, and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, joined in.

“Given the ongoing concerns raised since the Ligado Order was adopted, we urge you to work together with the FCC to grant the petitions for reconsideration and set aside the Order,” the coalition wrote.

The FCC is helmed by a top Trump ally, Chairman Brendan Carr, who has previously spoken with the Reporter about his priorities.