Farmers and ranchers who rely on the accuracy of GPS for precision agriculture can breathe just a bit easier, as a potential threat to the technology has been neutralized. The Federal Communications Commission this week revoked a conditional waiver granted to wireless broadband company LightSquared in January 2011. The waiver would have allowed the company to build a wireless broadband network provided there was no interference with GPS receivers.
The FCC pulled the waiver after testing by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration indicated that LightSquared’s system would interfere with the effectiveness of GPS receivers. The agency concluded that although a technical fix to the interference issue is possible, the cost and time to correct the millions of GPS receivers in the marketplace would not be possible within LightSquared’s proposed timeline.
Farm Bureau urged the federal government to ensure LightSquared’s system would not cause interference with GPS receivers prior to FCC granting the company the waiver. Disruption to GPS has the potential to reduce farm profitability due to increased production costs.
Increased broadband deployment in rural areas remains a priority for Farm Bureau. “It’s vital for economic development, distance learning, tele-medicine, for health care providers in rural areas, for businesses as they continue to grow, and for farmers and ranchers to branch out into different markets,” R.J. Karney, director of congressional relations at AFBF, told Delta Farm Press.
