LightSquared and former FCC chief engineer Edmond Thomas on Wednesday said the GPS test devices that were used by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) to test its new network were rigged by “manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results.” The company said that devices from GPS manufacturers, which have claimed LightSquared’s network interferes with GPS communications, were “cherry picked” in secret and that independent authorities were not allowed to partake or oversee the tests or test results. In addition, LightSquared said the tests focused on obsolete technology that is only used in “niche market devices” and that are “least able to withstand potential interference” from wireless networks. Read on for more.

After a list of the test devices was released to LightSquared, the company found that the only mass market device that reportedly failed the government’s tests actually “performed flawlessly during Technical Working Group” testing. The government also reportedly tested LightSquared’s network at a power level that is 32-times greater than the level at which it will actually operate.

LightSquared is relying on FCC approval to solidify a contract with Sprint to help build out the carrier’s 4G LTE network. Sprint most recently gave LightSquared an additional 30 days to gain FCC approval, but the government has said none of LightSquared’s proposed fixes will help it gain approval.

“Transparency is the only way taxpayers can be assured that the testing process is not manipulated to benefit one particular set of self interests,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “LightSquared is confident that a fair process will allow the company to move forward with its plan to deliver wireless broadband to hundreds of millions of consumers.” LightSquared’s full press release follows below.

Former FCC Chief Engineer and LightSquared Question Validity of Test Results Rigged by GPS Industry Insiders

After learning that some devices tested have been out of production for over a decade, the parties call on NTIA to objectively audit testing and apply proposed mitigation standards

RESTON, Va., January 18, 2012 – LightSquared said today that the process used to test GPS devices by Air Force Space Command on behalf of the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) was rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results, and revealed details of the testing to document its accusations.

PNT EXCOM advises and coordinates among U.S. government agencies on GPS matters and is comprised of representatives from those agencies with GPS expertise. LightSquared has called on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to objectively re-evaluate this initial round of testing and also to evaluate mitigation proposals the company has proposed. Additionally, the company has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the NTIA to conduct the second round of tests on high-precision devices at an independent laboratory to ensure objectivity and transparency.

In a call with reporters, Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy; and Geoff Stearn, LightSquared’s Vice President for Spectrum Development; outlined how GPS industry insiders and government end users manipulated the latest round of tests to generate biased results. Also on the call was Edmond Thomas, former chief engineer at the FCC who explained how fair and accurate testing should be conducted.

1. Testing was shrouded in secrecy, no transparency. The GPS manufacturers cherry-picked the devices in secret without any independent oversight authority in place or input from LightSquared. The GPS manufacturers and the government end users put non-disclosure agreements in place for the PNT EXCOM’s tests, preventing any input by an independent authority or from LightSquared before the tests began. This secrecy made it impossible for independent experts to properly oversee or challenge the process and results, thereby leaving taxpayers who paid for the testing no option but to take the PNT EXCOM’s word for it.

2. The testing protocol deliberately focused on obsolete and niche market devices that were least able to withstand potential interference. When LightSquared finally obtained a list of the devices tested, after all testing in this first phase of tests had been completed, it was able to determine that the testing included many discontinued or niche market devices with poor filters or no filters. The units tested represent less than one percent of the contemporary universe of GPS devices. In fact, the only mass market device alleged to “fail” during this round of testing performed flawlessly during the Technical Working Group testing, which used best practice protocols agreed to by all parties, thus raising doubts about the integrity of PNT EXCOM’s process.

3. The testing standard does not reflect reality. To guarantee favorable results, the PNT EXCOM selected an extremely conservative definition of failure – one dB of interference. Independent experts agree that a one dB threshold can only be detected in laboratory settings and has no impact on GPS positional accuracy or user experience. In fact, GPS devices are designed with the ability to withstand eight dB or more of loss of sensitivity due to man-caused and natural interference. By setting the definition of interference at one dB, the testing was rigged to ensure that most receivers would fail. It should be noted that PNT EXCOM and others have justified the one dB threshold by citing an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard. However, that standard explicitly states that it does not apply to general purpose GPS receivers.

GPS and government end users should have opened the process for transparent review, chosen a representative sample of devices that reflect the scope of general purpose GPS receivers in the marketplace today, applied best practice standards to the testing protocol, and – most importantly, the tests should have been conducted by an independent laboratory rather than by the GPS manufacturers themselves, since they had a large incentive to ensure that the tested receivers would not pass the testing.

LightSquared recommends that reporters consider asking PNT EXCOM the following questions to ensure accountability:

Why did the government choose to ignore LightSquared’s proposed power levels?

Why did the government choose a power level 32 times greater than the level at which LightSquared will operate?

Why did the test protocol select the 1dB degradation to noise as the interference standard, since it does not apply to general purpose GPS receivers and GPS units are typically designed with an 8dB level of tolerance?

Who determined what acceptable interference is for the current round of testing?

What is that standard?

Why was the testing conducted using outdated/discontinued devices rather than a representative sample of what is currently in the market?

Isn’t it a violation of conflict of interest laws for representatives of GPS manufacturers to sit on the PNT advisory board and play a central role in its consideration of LightSquared when those companies are actively lobbying on the same issue?

Is it fair that taxpayers funded a testing regime they cannot review?

LightSquared has agreed to meet every technical guideline requested by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), FCC and NTIA and will continue to work in collaboration with the federal government to resolve the GPS interference issues. The secretive behavior of the PNT EXCOM indicates a co-opted process. The inappropriate influence of the private sector on their decision-making has been brought to the attention of NASA’s Inspector General in a separate conflict of interest complaint filed by LightSquared.

LightSquared is asking for fair and transparent oversight of the testing process by the FCC and NTIA, much like the agencies provided in the first round of testing that was openly agreed to by all parties. Transparency is the only way taxpayers can be assured that the testing process is not manipulated to benefit one particular set of self interests. LightSquared is confident that a fair process will allow the company to move forward with its plan to deliver wireless broadband to hundreds of millions of consumers.

In a memo released on Friday, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee said the nine federal agencies that make up the body have concluded unanimously that none of LightSquared’s proposals would overcome the network’s interference with GPS technologies. The announcement comes as a crushing blow for the startup, which is looking to build an LTE network with the company’s 1600MHz frequency. Preliminary testing last year showed that LightSquared’s planned network interfered with GPS. After a handful of rebuttals, changes, and more testing, the government has decided to pull the plug and request no further testing. The Federal Aviation Administration also concluded the network would interfere with aircraft safety systems.”Based upon this testing and analysis, there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS. As a result, no additional testing is warranted at this time,” the memo said. LightSquared slammed the decision, claiming the agency has a biased agenda that is in favor of the GPS industry. Late last year, LightSquared reiterated that the GPS industry is at fault and it demanded approval from the FCC to begin deploying its network.

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LightSquared has asked NASA’s inspector general to investigate whether or not an advisor to federal agencies has conflicts of interest that make it unfair for him to determine whether or not LightSquared’s 4G LTE network interferes with GPS networks. The advisor was named as Bradford Parkinson, who works both as a vice chairman of Trimble Navigation, an industry board that advises federal agencies on GPS technology, and also as a Stanford University professor, The Wall Street Journal said Friday. “His involvement on both has been known by everyone involved since concerns of GPS interference by LightSquared were raised,” a GPS coalition spokesperson Dale Leibach told The Wall Street Journal. Read on for more.

In December, federal officials from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense said that LightSquared’s 4G LTE network still interferes with GPS signals, but LightSquared has argued that a new antenna developed in partnership with PC-TEL resolves most of the FCC’s concerns. The company currently has a contract to provide Sprint with part of its new 4G LTE network, but LightSquared must gain FCC approval to validate the terms. LightSquared was originally given until the end of 2011 to gain approval but Sprint, on January 3rd, said it will give the company another 30 days to get a blessing from the FCC. Unfortunately, The Wall Street Journal explained that LightSquared must now gain approval from the Department of Defense before it can convince the FCC its technology is harmless to GPS networks.

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LightSquared on Tuesday issued a letter to the Federal Communications Commission ostensibly demanding approval to build out its 4G LTE network. LightSquared executive vice president of regulatory affairs and public policy Jeff Carlisle argued that the GPS industry has had almost 10 years to address issues that cause GPS satellite signals to partially transmit on spectrum that LightSquared has licensed. The letter was written in response to an announcement earlier this week from federal officials, stating that they were still concerned about interference LightSquared’s network causes with GPS equipment after conducting a new investigation into the matter. “LightSquared has had FCC authorization to build its network for over eight years and that authorization was endorsed by the GPS industry, and fully reviewed and allowed to proceed by several other government agencies,” Carlisle wrote in the letter. “Commercial GPS device-makers have had nearly a decade to design and sell devices that do not infringe on LightSquared’s licensed spectrum. They have no right to complain in the eleventh-hour about incompatibility when they had ample opportunity to avoid this problem.” A link to LightSquared’s full letter follows below.

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LightSquared’s intentions to build a brand new 4G LTE network has gained nationwide attention, but over the past few months the attention has been turned to the network’s tendency to interfere with GPS devices. On Thursday, federal officials said they were still concerned about GPS interference despite a number of measures LightSquared has taken to address those issues. The company announced in late October that it worked with PCTEL to develop a new antenna that “[resolves] concerns over high precision GPS receivers.” Unfortunately, the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation still see an interference problem with the network. Read on for more.

“LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to the majority of… general purpose GPS receivers,” Anthony Russo, the director of the National Coordination Office for spaced-based positioning, navigation and timing, said in a statement. LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja believes that LightSquared isn’t at fault, however. “The interference issues are not caused by LightSquared’s spectrum, but by GPS devices looking into spectrum that is licensed to LightSquared,” Ahuja explained to The Wall Street Journal, noting that LightSquared “ profoundly [disagrees] with the conclusions drawn with respect to general navigation devices.” Ahuja said his company will work with the FAA to address a single remaining issue that is related to terrain avoidance systems.

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TeleNav just announced that the company will soon introduce a brand new voice-guided GPS navigation service for use in mobile apps and web sites. The innovative navigation solution will be HTML5-based and it will include spoken turn-by-turn directions. By using one line of code, TeleNav will provide free navigation to any mobile app or mobile web site, supplanting the need in many cases for something static like Google Maps. TeleNav let us know that this service will be free even for non-TeleNav subscribers, which is amazing if you think about it. The service will be launching “early next year,” though developers can start testing the service starting today. TeleNav’s full press release is included after the break.

TeleNav Announces World’s First HTML5 Browser-Based, Voice-Guided, Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation Service

Free for both developers and consumers; Access available now for select developers

Sunnyvale, California — Dec. 15, 2011 – TeleNav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), one of the largest global wireless location-based services providers, today announced that it has created the first HTML5 browser-based, voice-guided, turn-by-turn GPS navigation service for mobile devices. By simply adding one line of code, developers of mobile websites or of apps with local content will have a free and easy way to integrate full GPS turn-by-turn directions into their services, creating a more seamless user experience and increasing user engagement and time spent within their applications.

Similar to TeleNav’s award-winning GPS navigation application, the HTML5 navigation service will include full-color moving maps, audio directions, and automatic rerouting if the driver misses a turn. TeleNav’s HTML5 navigation service will be free for both developers and consumers and will support all major mobile platforms. 

“This is an enormous amount of added value for any mobile, location-based website or app focused on travel, shopping, local search, deals and more,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for TeleNav. “With one line of code, you can give your customers one-click access to premium, voice-guided turn-by-turn directions to any location, including hotels, restaurants, merchants or deal locations. Customers never need to leave your app.”

TeleNav would like to partner with select developers to test the service. Interested mobile website publishers and app developers can apply for early access by visiting TeleNav’s website at www.telenav.com/developer/HTML5.

TeleNav expects to publicly launch its HTML5 service in early 2012. Consumers will not need to be current TeleNav customers but will need to have an HTML5-compatible feature phone or smartphone.

Google has announced a new privacy option that allows users to opt out of having their wireless routers included in the Google Location Server. That’s right, you have to opt out, not in. Here’s how Google Location Server works: when you’re walking around town trying to figure out your location using your smartphone and Google Maps, your phone can either use GPS or a faster, more battery efficient method that determines your location based on local wireless networks. Google maintains a database of local wireless access points but, if you don’t want to be included in it, you can simply change your router SSID (the network name that you broadcast) to include “_nomap” at the end of the access point name. Once you’ve done that, Google will not include your wireless access point in its Google Location Server database. “As we explored different approaches for opting-out access points from the Google Location Server, we found that a method based on wireless network names provides the right balance of simplicity as well as protection against abuse,” Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Felischer said in a blog post. “Specifically, this approach helps protect against others opting out your access point without your permission.”

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LightSquared announced on Thursday that, in cooperating with PCTEL, it has developed a new antenna that will help “resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers.” LightSquared’s 4G LTE network, which will be deployed in the 1600MHz frequency spectrum with Sprint, has been found to interfere with the frequencies used by GPS and personal navigation systems. The new antenna helps alleviate those concerns, despite speculation that a fix could require billions of dollars and take upwards of a decade. “PCTEL has developed GPS antenna solutions that have solved a variety of interference issues that others said were unsolvable,” LightSquared executive vice president Martin Harriman said. “Their wideband antenna provides an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users.” The new solution will soon undergo testing with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as well as with the Federal Communications Commission. Read on for the full press release.

LightSquared and PCTEL Protect High Precision GPS Applications

LightSquared and PCTEL Collaboration Solves High Precision GPS Interference

RESTON, Va., Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — LightSquared, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and drive industry innovation, has collaborated with PCTEL (NASDAQ: PCTI), a global leader in the design and development of innovative antenna solutions, to resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers.

PCTEL has developed an antenna that will allow existing high precision users to retrofit their GPS devices to make them compatible with LightSquared’s network. This antenna provides high precision GPS users with another in a series of solutions to make their equipment LightSquared-compatible.

“PCTEL has developed GPS antenna solutions that have solved a variety of interference issues that others said were unsolvable. Their wideband antenna provides an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users,” said Martin Harriman, executive vice president of ecosystem development and satellite business at LightSquared.

PCTEL’s antenna solutions address applications including public safety, agriculture, construction and aviation. The new antenna will be independently tested with a range of receivers at the world-renowned Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ.

“Over the last year, we have worked closely with LightSquared to develop a narrowband solution to interference issues. Our current work with LightSquared will enable wideband high precision users to have a state-of-the-art solution for their unique positioning needs. We look forward to developing other multiband and wideband high rejection GPS antenna products with LightSquared to bring high precision technology to new levels,” said Jeff Miller, PCTEL’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

Despite claims by some GPS device manufacturers that an interference solution would take ten years and billions of dollars to develop, the private marketplace has continued to develop inexpensive solutions using existing technology in just a matter of weeks. PCTEL is the third company to collaborate with LightSquared on a solution to high-precision GPS interference issues. Earlier this month, GPS device maker Javad GNSS announced the design of antennas that can be retrofitted onto existing devices and the development of new receivers that are compatible with LightSquared’s network. Additionally, Partron America has created a filtering component that costs only $6.

These solutions will undergo extensive National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) testing in the coming weeks.  Preliminary testing results leave LightSquared confident that the debate over its network and interference from GPS signals will be resolved.

LightSquared’s mission is to build a world-class 4G-LTE network that will bring lower prices, better service and more competition to 260 million Americans by 2015. It is through these alliances with engineering experts that new GPS interference solutions have been developed, keeping the company’s deployment plan on track so that all Americans can realize the benefits of a new nationwide wireless broadband network.

Microsoft has updated its Windows Phone platform to address what is now presumed to have been a bug that caused phones to gather location data before a user opted in to such services. Windows Phone developer Rafael Rivera last week revealed that Microsoft’s mobile platform was exhibiting behavior that directly contradicted earlier claims the company made to the United States government. Microsoft’s new “Mango” update, however, appears to have remedied the matter. Read on for more.

“Microsoft only collects information to help determine a phone’s approximate location if (a) the user has allowed an application to access and use location data, and (b) that application actually requests the location data,” Microsoft said recently in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Rivera discovered that Windows Phone devices began collecting and transmitting “pin-point accurate positioning information” before users were even given the option to opt into such a service.

This behavior now appears to have been a bug. Rivera analyzed the latest version of Windows Phone currently being pushed out to smartphones around the world, and he found that the new OS no longer collects location data until users opt in.

“I have confirmed that Windows Phone ‘Mango’ no longer sends location data prior to being granted permission to do so,” Rivera wrote in a blog post earlier this week. “The behavior I’m now seeing is perfectly aligned with Microsoft’s letter to the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Pending lawsuits against Microsoft surrounding the collection of location data will no doubt continue, but it appears as though Windows Phone’s collection of positioning data is now completely transparent and in line with descriptions provided in the terms of use.

Apple has repeatedly accused Samsung of “copying” its products, but it looks like Microsoft is now the one following Apple’s lead. A class action lawsuit filed in Seattle on Wednesday accuses Microsoft of unlawfully tracking users of smartphones that run the company’s emerging Windows Phone 7 operating system. According to the complaint, the camera application in Microsoft’s Windows Phone software continues to track users’ locations and transmit that data to Microsoft even if users opt-out of Windows Phone’s tracking and feedback functions. The class action suit seeks an injunction as well as punitive damages. Earlier this year, Apple was caught tracking iPhone and iPad users’ locations and storing them in a hidden file on the devices. Apple would go on to state that the issue was caused by a bug, and the Cupertino-based company quickly issued a software update to remedy the problem. Numerous complaints were filed as a result of the scandal however, and while damages have been minimal so far, several cases are still outstanding.

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Apple has big plans for location services according to a new job listing posted by the Cupertino, California-based company. In a listing for a new “OS QA Location Engineer,” Apple said the candidate will “join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iOS products, working on exciting new features for iOS location services.” The job also requires “familiarity with GPS, A-GPS, LBS, or navigation algorithms” and “experience with cellular technologies.” Apple has already said that it wants to “radically improve” its current iOS Maps application, which we would argue certainly needs an update, so it is possible the job could be on that team. In addition, Apple included a new location-based Reminders application inside iOS 5, which will launch to the public in the fall. Perhaps the company has similar ideas in store.

[Via AppleInsider]

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Apple has been fined by South Korea’s telecommunications regulator following the “Locationgate” scandal that caused public outrage earlier this year, Dow Jones reports. This marks the second time Apple has had to pay penalties resulting from the iOS location-tracking snafu. A South Korean lawyer sued Apple and was awarded $1 million won, or approximately $945 at the time, by a court this past June. It was discovered in April that the iPhone and some iPad models were secretly tracking users and storing their locations in a local file. Apple determined that a software bug was responsible for the collection of location data, and it promptly issued a fix. The damage had already been done, however, and lawsuits were filed. Apple’s prompt attention to the matter likely limited the damage, and Wednesday’s fine levied by the Korea Communications Commission is the first penalty we’ve seen issued by a regulatory body. So what’s the damage this time around? $3 million won, or approximately $2,829.

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Following the “Antennagate” scandal that cost Apple zero sales last year, a new “Locationgate” scandal took the media by storm earlier this year that ultimately cost Apple zero sales. It was discovered in late April that the iPhone and 3G-equipped iPads were secretly tracking and storing users’ locations. Apple issued a statement seven days later, claiming the culprit was a bug that would be addressed as soon as possible. Apple also said that it does not track its users or their locations. Some people tend to take things more personally than others — or perhaps they’re out for a quick buck — so lawsuits were inevitable. Thus far, just one single complaint related to Locationgate has resulted in a payout from Apple, and it was awarded to South Korean man Kim Hyung-suk this past May, Reuters reports. What was the damage? 1 million won, which translates to a whopping $945. Kim, a lawyer, said Apple sent the payment last month.

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TomTom on Monday lowered its 2011 financial outlook again as consumer interest in dedicated navigation devices dwindles. Despite beating second-quarter revenue estimates, the Dutch company cut its full-year revenue guidance to €1.23 – €1.28 billion from its previously forecasted range of between €1.43 billion and €1.48 billion. This marks the second time this year that TomTom has lowered its 2011 guidance — the company had already reduced its full-year revenue forecast this past April. TomTom made a name for itself selling sleek Personal Navigation Devices that could be mounted in any car to provide the user with voice-guided GPS navigation. Following the emergence of smartphone-based solutions over the past few years, however, dedicated navigation companies like TomTom and Garmin have not been able to recover business lost to free solutions like Google Maps and inexpensive paid mobile solutions such as those offered by CoPilot and TalaNav. TomTom does offer a series of mobile applications, but the relative high price points and the flood of competition have proven to be difficult barriers.

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We’re back with another one and this time it’s thanks to TeleNav, our launch partner for our new podcast series. Want to get your hands on the hottest tablet on the planet, which is still sold out almost everywhere? Here’s how you can enter to win:

• First of all, make sure to check out our very first podcast with information on the giveaway!
• Install the free GPS by TeleNav app on your iPhone or your Android smartphone and start the 30-day trial.
• Leave a comment below letting us know your feedback on the podcast, your thoughts on the TeleNav app, or why you’d like to win a brand new iPad 2.

The content will run for one week until July 4th at 11:59 p.m. EDT. For official terms and conditions click here.

Good luck!

P.S. You can also follow @TeleNav on Twitter, along with the @BGR team at @boygenius, @zacharye and @robotodd!