Your GPS has been cancelled by the FCC

[LDB]

Thank you Obama administration led FCC for approving a moronic proposal that renders GPS useless in huge portions of the nation. A proposal for satellite based 4G speed internet has been approved at the same frequency as GPS signals. It will overpower the GPS signal rendering the GPS useless while within the zone of the signal booster. There will be 40,000 such boosters when fully implemented. Interference will begin about 3.5 miles from the booster. All GPS service will end about 2 miles from the booster in urban areas like Chicago, NY etc. and those areas will be blanketed with boosters. In other areas signal loss will be around 2/3 of a mile. Airplanes are not exempt either and suffer more. They notice interference at 14 miles, weak signal at 10 miles and loss of service at 5.5 miles. Oh, and the important stuff like airports are in those blanketed areas so they will have many many miles of no GPS.

If you own a GPS and don't want to have to throw it in the trash and buy a new more expensive unit with the filters etc. to overcome this fiasco you better start contacting folks on the committees who might do something about it.

How The FCC Plans To Destroy GPS – A Simple Explanation

GPS Community Urged to Contact Congress Regarding FCC Proposal | GPS World

Committee Members - About - U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation

U.S. House of Representatives: Committee on Energy and Commerce, Republicans

 

[layoutshooter]

I wonder if that is why DOD have been doing partial shut downs of the system lately? Maybe testing new encryption algorithms that can over come this so they don't lose capabilities?

 

[greg334]

It is like the Bush administration and digital TV and radio. We could have used what the rest of the world was using but had to chart our own course and exclude ourselves from that technology, hence access for TV and radio.

 

[layoutshooter]

What loss of access to tv and radio? Please explain.

 

[bluejaybee]

What loss of access to tv and radio? Please explain.

Wow! Where have you been? TV went digital and you have to have newer TV or box for old one to receive the digital signal.

 

[layoutshooter]

Wow! Where have you been? TV went digital and you have to have newer TV or box for old one to receive the digital signal.

That did not cause a loss of TV or radio access. It just changed the broadcast format. I am not understanding what Greg meant.

 

[desync0]

The format the US went with for DTV, and HD radio is closed, proprietary, and different then what the rest of the world is using.

Forces americans to buy more expensive hardware, and the formats aren't as "good" as what everyone else is using.

 

[layoutshooter]

The format the US went with for DTV, and HD radio is closed, proprietary, and different then what the rest of the world is using.

Forces americans to buy more expensive hardware, and the formats aren't as "good" as what everyone else is using.

There has not been any loss of access though, has there? What am I missing.

 

[greg334]

The point is the FCC didn't do their homework.

We could have used standards that the rest of the world uses, DRM is one that is used everywhere but here. BUT instead the FCC has been ignoring a lot of things they shouldn't and has caused the consumer added expenses and a lack of variety.

Rand and Ron Paul have made a good point that the regulatory agencies have replaced congress and this has been a serious issue with a number of problems caused by the EPA and DOT but also the FCC. They want to pull back that policy making process into congress where this won't happen without congressional approval.

 

[Turtle]

There has not been any loss of access though, has there? What am I missing.

The loss of access is... unless you upgrade your TV to receive digital signals, you lose 100% access to broadcast television, since they now broadcast only in digital format. A television must have a digital tuner in order to receive over-the-air television broadcasts, and if you have an older television, you have zero access to broadcast television, unless you upgrade the TV with a digital tuner.

 

[LDB]

For tv there was an option for a $40 fix as I recall. When GPS is killed by this plan the fix will only be replacement at higher cost than now. TV is over and done with. We can't unring that bell. If we get back on point with GPS we can possibly end this before it starts.

 

[Turtle]

Well, without the fix, you lost access to broadcast television. The cost of the fix doesn't really matter, really. That a fix was required is what matters. The cost of the fix for GPS is wholly unknown at this point, since it isn't even known if a fix will be required. The approval for the new 4G WiFi satellite Internet thing is a conditional approval, whereby one of the conditions is to minimize or eliminate interference to GPS signals on the L1, L2 and L5 civilian frequencies.