NBAA Joins Call for FCC to Investigate Ligado Claims of GPS Interference Mitigation

Dec. 17, 2024

NBAA recently joined with 29 other stakeholders from both within and outside the aviation industry in calling for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take a closer look at claims made by Ligado Networks regarding a key mitigation to reduce the potential for interference with GPS signals.

In April 2020, the FCC issued its controversial “Ligado Order” approving a high-speed broadband cellular network that NBAA and other stakeholders assert has been proven to interfere with GPS and satellite communications networks.

Among the order’s requirements was for the telecommunications provider to market by Sept. 30, 2024, a dual-mode mobile satellite service/ancillary terrestrial component (MSS/ATC) device able to switch between satellite and ground-based cellular networks that are less likely to interfere with GPS.

Ligado claimed such a dual-mode MSS/ATC device was available in an October 2024 statement to the Commission. However, signatories to the Dec. 13 letter to FCC Sec. Marlene Dortch asserted no such device appears ready to purchase.

“A review of the commission’s equipment authorizations in the commission’s EAS database and public Internet searches failed to identify examples of any certified dual-mode equipment or devices available for purchase or lease in the marketplace that operate on the frequencies which Ligado is authorized to use for ATC operations or that match Ligado’s description of the device,” the letter stated.

Read the full aviation industry letter to the FCC.

Even if such a system was available and authorized, stakeholders continued, “The mere existence of a certified device does not necessarily mean that the device was “available in the marketplace” by the relevant deadline … [Raising] serious questions regarding whether the equipment exists and impair[ing] the ability of interested parties to ascertain Ligado’s actual compliance with the Ligado Order.”

Signatories called on the FCC, “to require Ligado to publicly identify the relevant equipment authorization(s) for the dual-mode equipment and provide details of the manner in which the equipment has been offered for sale or lease.”

NBAA and other industry stakeholders continue to call upon the FCC to vacate the Ligado Order. In a letter earlier this year to President Joe Biden and members of Congress, NBAA cited “unified and unprecedented opposition [to the order] from the federal government, including 14 federal agencies and departments.”