Good intentions gone awry? The FCC has granted a conditional waiver to a company that plans to build 40,000 ground stations across the United States that could cause serious interference to GPS signals.
Ironically, this direction is designed to bring increased accessibility to customers that want both GPS and broadband services. Is this an acute, technical oversight blinded by it’s beneficial end game? Perhaps.
I will leave this to the technical experts but my opinion is that if any disruption is possible, it warrants further analysis. This is precisely the goal of the Coalition to Save Our GPS. The coalition, comprised of representatives from a wide variety of industries, seeks a number of remedies from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designed to safeguard GPS.
MachineControlOnline’s Joe Sass writes about this issue in the April 2011 eNewsletter.
Please click this link to read.
http://machinecontrolonline.com/content/view/7330/
In addition to Joe’s article at MachineControlOnline.com, here is another link referencing what others are saying:
http://www.saveourgps.org/what-other-saying.aspx
Land surveying, civil engineering, GIS, 3D machine control (mining, landfills, construction, dredging, agriculture) as well as aviation, first responders and critical mass consumers rely on this ubiquitous utility. Please consider your own research and analysis regarding the decision to get involved.
Please visit this link on how to voice your concern should you decide to do so.
http://www.saveourgps.org/voice-your-concern.aspx
If you are a member of the international community, you may consider keeping your eye on similar initiatives.
Drop me a line at editor at machinecontrolonline.com with comments and questions.
More to come… Randy
Read Randy’s articles
Read Randy’s blog