Concern about GPS interference probably kills Lightsquared proposal

The Federal Communication Commission has said that LightSquared, a proposed wireless broadband network, should be shelved because it interferes with the spectrum used by Global Positioning Software. (NY Times story here)

I wrote about this issue last June (here's somebody else's copy of my story, which is easier to link to than our owm archive) when U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass held a press conference expressing concern about Lightsquared. Bass is a private pilot and pilots use GPS these days: When I got my private pilot's license, three decades ago, that was still science fiction.

I learned to fly at a small Tennessee airport that didn't even have lights. When landing after sunset I had to buzz the runway once before landing, in order to scare off the deer that came out to enjoy the latent heat coming up from the pavement. I haven't flown since I moved to N.H. - something about having kids made the cost hard to justify, oddly enough.</