WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday circulated a draft order asking the five-member panel to approve Ligado Networks’ request to deploy a low-power nationwide network to support next-generation 5G wireless despite Defense Department objections.
FILE PHOTO: Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, speaks at the WSJTECH Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S., October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Ligado’s plan to use so-called L-Band spectrum, for which it holds some licenses, has come under criticism from some federal agencies and powerful lawmakers. The L-Band is also used for Global Positioning System (GPS) and other navigation systems because the signals can penetrate cloud cover. The Pentagon also uses the band for military purposes.
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Jim Inhofe and the panel’s top Democrat, Jack Reed, asked U.S. President Donald Trump…
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