Tech subcommittee to hold hearing on LightSquared

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) chairman of Energy and Commerce's technology subcommittee, told reporters on Wednesday he plans to hold a hearing on wireless startup LightSquared.

The company, which has invested billions of dollars to launch a wholesale wireless broadband service, has become embroiled in controversy since tests showed its planned network could interfere with GPS devices.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted LightSquared a conditional waiver to move forward last year, but commission officials say the company will not receive final approval to launch its network until it solves the GPS issue.

Some Republicans have accused the White House and the FCC of showing inappropriate favoritism to LightSquared, but Walden did not suggest any wrongdoing. 

He questioned why the FCC allowed LightSquared to get as far as it has in the regulatory process before discovering the interference problems, but he suggested there could still be an engineering solution to the interference problem.

He noted that the interference is a result of GPS devices receiving signals from outside of their designated frequencies — not by LightSquared's signal bleeding into the GPS band. He said he hopes it would be possible for GPS companies to modify their receivers to work in the presence of LightSquared's network.

Walden said his hearing will probe why the FCC did not discover the interference problem earlier and what can be done about it now.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has pledged to block President Obama's two nominees to fill FCC vacancies unless the agency releases internal documents related to its review of LightSquared.

The company is financed in large part by billionaire Phil Falcone of Harbinger Capital. But the company is now reportedly running low on cash and risks losing a contract with Sprint unless it can receive regulatory approval in the coming weeks.

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