Mobile broadband startup LightSquared has some new ammunition for claims that it has received unfair treatment in the dispute over GPS interference from its ground-based network: The website Politico has obtained a 2010 email in which a U.S. Department of Defense official urges his colleagues to “synch up” with the GPS industry against LightSquared.
Politico says the email, leaked by a “spectrum expert close to the situation,” came as the Global Positioning System Industry Council was preparing to brief the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on LightSquared’s proposed L-band wireless network.
“We need to synch up with them prior to them briefing NTIA to make sure we are in lock step,” the Defense Department official wrote in the email. “Especially since they are our allies.”
The NTIA and U.S. Federal Communications Commission blocked LightSquared’s plan in February.
