The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) through a petition to repeal or reconsider its approval of Ligado’s application to use the L-band spectrum to deploy a terrestrial wireless network in support of 5G services.
NTIA said Friday that it also asked the FCC to stay the authorization’s effective date as it handles the reconsideration request, which cites the potential risk of the commission’s decision to federal users of GPS.
“Today’s petition makes the case that the FCC gave insufficient deference to the considerations raised by the Executive Branch, especially those from the Departments of Defense and Transportation, while justifying its decision in large part on the potential public interest benefits of a new low-power terrestrial service that would compete with or complement 4G and 5G networks already operating or being deployed across the United States,” NTIA said.
DoD officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 6 to express their opposition to the FCC decision.
