PLSO The Oregon Surveyor July/August 2021

17 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article P resident Biden has proposed spend- ing $2 trillion on infrastructure, including roads and bridges, climate change research, renewable energy, and electric vehicles and charging stations. All require reliable availability of the Global Positioning System, a constellation of 24 satellites whose signals enable drivers to find their way and emergency workers to get to accidents. Navigation systems in millions of cars depend on GPS. But now the entire GPS system is en- dangered by a misguided decision the Federal Communications Commission made during the Trump administration. GPS is vulnerable to interference from ground-based transmissions, yet last April the FCC unanimously granted an application by Ligado Networks, based in Reston, Va., to offer a ground-based 5G service in spectrum, much of which is next to spectrum allocated for GPS. Why is that likely to be a serious problem? Because Ligado’s signals will be 2 billion times as powerful as GPS signals. Just as an outdoor rock concert would drown out birdsong, the proposed Ligado 5G transmitters would overwhelm GPS sig- nals. Ligado is authorized to begin work, but as a relatively small company unlikely to be able to tackle a nationwide deploy- ment, it is expected to sell the spectrum to a giant wireless carrier, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. Biden should ask his FCC to reconsider. Unencumbered GPS is vital for Ameri- cans’ daily lives and for the success of his infrastructure and climate agenda. Ligado says it will use the newly allocated spectrum for faster 5G Internet service. However, its spectrum would add only a tiny portion to spectrum the FCC has al- ready allocated for 5G—while reducing GPS’s reliability. Ligado’s engineering studies show little harm from the proposed network, while federal government studies indicatemajor disruption to GPS. The FCC inexplicably sided with Ligado rather than with neutral government experts. The FCC chairman at the time, Ajit Pai, defended the deci- sion, saying the commission had insisted on safeguards sufficient to avoid inter - ference in making a decision that would “maintain our nation’s leadership in 5G.“ At the time, Trump administration heavy- weights Attorney General William P. Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pub- licly supported Ligado in their personal capacities ahead of the FCC decision. Amonth after the vote, in an extraordinary move, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration—on be- half of the executive branch, “particularly” the Defense and Transportation depart- ments—asked the FCC to reconsider, citing “irreparable harms to federal government users of the Global Positioning System.” This remains the NTIA’s position, yet the FCC has not reconsidered its order. Sen. JamesM. Inhofe (R-Ok.), then-chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was so appalled that he required the Na- tional Academy of Sciences to performan independent review of all the engineering studies connectedwith thematter. He said, “A few powerful people made a hasty de- cision over the weekend—in the middle of a national crisis, against the judgment of every other agency involved.” The Defense Department had concerns, some of which were made public. In 2019, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper wrote, “All independent and scientifical - ly valid testing and technical data shows the potential for widespread disruption and degradation of GPS services from the proposed Ligado system.” As part of its approval, the FCC required Ligado to replace any federal equip- ment damaged through its operations. But Ligado was not required to pay for private-sector equipment, such as car navigation systems and surveying equip- ment. (Studies indicate that smartphones, happily, would not be affected.) This is anonpartisan issue: BothDemocrats and Republicans agree on potential dam- age to national security and the economy. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), now chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in June last year at a hearing on FCC oversight that the commission “has sided against federal experts on weath- er forecasting, aviation, transportation safety and national security. … Nowhere is this development more obvious than the Ligado decision.” It is obvious how an unreliable GPS could affect car navigation systems. Less ob - vious is its role in vital matters such as measuring climate change. GPS is central to scientists’ ability to monitor pressure, temperature and water vapor in the lower atmosphere, changes in snowfall, vegeta- tion in the Amazon, and other indicators. Matthew Siegfried, a Colorado School of Mines professor, spent nine Antarctica summers setting up GPS field stations to take satellite measures to study Ant- arctic snowfall. “GPS underlies all climate change science research now. It is a crit- ical piece of infrastructure that we can’t manage without,” he told me by phone. That’s just one of the countless ways that GPS has become ingrained in modern life. As the president works to move the country forward after the devastating pandemic year, he should urge the FCC to preserve GPS, a tool that will be essen- tial in helping him to achieve his goals. x Diana Furchtgott-Roth is the former deputy assistant secretary for research and develop- ment at the Transportation Department, and is an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University. GPS is Endangered by a Misguided FCC Decision Made During the Trump Administration By Diana Furchtgott-Roth Editor’s Note: The following opinion piece appeared in the April 14, 2021, Washington Post. It is reprinted with permission.