Telecommunications company sues Commerce and Defense Departments $39 billion for theft
The telecommunications company Ligado yesterday filed a $39 billion suit against the Commerce and Defense Departments for stealing use of the communications spectrum granted to it by the FCC for the establishment of a 5G cell phone network.
Ligado’s suit filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims [PDF] makes a number of allegations, including that the Pentagon has “taken Ligado’s spectrum for the agency’s own purposes, operating previously undisclosed systems that use or depend on Ligado’s spectrum without compensating Ligado.”
Those systems, a source close to the case said, are certain classified radars rather than GPS systems.
The suit cites a high-level DoD “whistleblower” who “revealed internal emails and discussions” that the company claims show DoD and Commerce “fabricated arguments, misled Congress in testimony supporting anti-Ligado legislation, and orchestrated a public smear campaign, which included repeating those false claims to the public and threatening Ligado’s business partners with canceling their own government contracts if they worked with Ligado.”
There had been some disagreement about whether Ligado’s use of this spectrem might interfere with GPS as well as other communications services. Nonetheless, the spectrum was legally Ligado’s. If the lawsuit is correct and these government agencies arbitrarilly took possession and used the spectrum illegally, thus preventing Ligado from establishing its business, it would appear to be another example of the arrogant administrative state ignoring the law to grab power.
Once I would have considered a suit like this to simply be a failed company’s effort to recover its losses by blaming the government. I no longer assume such things. Instead, my first thought is that the allegations are true, that bureaucrats in Defense and Commerce conspirated to steal the spectrum for their own uses, and didn’t care that they were violating the law.
The truth could be a combination of all these things, but if so that still tells us some very ugly things about the people who now work in these federal agencies.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The telecommunications company Ligado yesterday filed a $39 billion suit against the Commerce and Defense Departments for stealing use of the communications spectrum granted to it by the FCC for the establishment of a 5G cell phone network.
Ligado’s suit filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims [PDF] makes a number of allegations, including that the Pentagon has “taken Ligado’s spectrum for the agency’s own purposes, operating previously undisclosed systems that use or depend on Ligado’s spectrum without compensating Ligado.”
Those systems, a source close to the case said, are certain classified radars rather than GPS systems.
The suit cites a high-level DoD “whistleblower” who “revealed internal emails and discussions” that the company claims show DoD and Commerce “fabricated arguments, misled Congress in testimony supporting anti-Ligado legislation, and orchestrated a public smear campaign, which included repeating those false claims to the public and threatening Ligado’s business partners with canceling their own government contracts if they worked with Ligado.”
There had been some disagreement about whether Ligado’s use of this spectrem might interfere with GPS as well as other communications services. Nonetheless, the spectrum was legally Ligado’s. If the lawsuit is correct and these government agencies arbitrarilly took possession and used the spectrum illegally, thus preventing Ligado from establishing its business, it would appear to be another example of the arrogant administrative state ignoring the law to grab power.
Once I would have considered a suit like this to simply be a failed company’s effort to recover its losses by blaming the government. I no longer assume such things. Instead, my first thought is that the allegations are true, that bureaucrats in Defense and Commerce conspirated to steal the spectrum for their own uses, and didn’t care that they were violating the law.
The truth could be a combination of all these things, but if so that still tells us some very ugly things about the people who now work in these federal agencies.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Your headline probably should read “… for Theft”., right?
Ray Van Dune: Yup, that’s what it was supposed to read. Thank you. Now fixed.
Now I want to know what it originally said!
Considering most government agencies work against law abiding Americans and that we’d be better off without them, I think it’s more like 80% to 90%…
“American Thought Leaders @AmThoughtLeader
I asked @Kash based on his experience, how many positions in federal agencies don’t need to exist.
“At least 1/3.”
“You have these billets & positions added over years…Every year, they’re looking to justify their existence.””
Oct 12, 2023, 2:21 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@AmThoughtLeader/posts/111224141253873621
Folk hate on SLS—when this behavior is the bigger problem.
A natural bias toward nepotism in the granting of security clearances is also a factor since cost allocation changes in the 1990s. Corporations can have a lower cost per employee investigation charged to them when the employee is closely related to someone who has already been investigated and granted a clearance. The closely related bootstrap person is often a government or military employee.
This Ligado thing is full of classified claims and evidence we can never see
George C & others:
The journey from the citadel of liberty into the dungeon of tyranny passes through the doorway marked “secrecy.”
Husband of a grad school classmate is a consulting engineer for disposal and cleanup of nuclear waste (he once wrote off and buried a radio controlled bulldozer after 20 hours of use). He does a lot of work for the Navy and the difference from civilian power stations and nuclear medicine facilities is amazing. He consistently has to get his senators and congressmen to get paid anywhere near on time and in the amount stipulated in the contract. AS an old sailor, he feels he has a patriotic duty and loyalty to the service or he just wouldn’t bid on any government contracts
Jeff Wright,
You wrote: “Folk hate on SLS—when this behavior is the bigger problem.”
You’re right. We can only deal with or complain about one item at a time, and until that problem is solved, we must remain focused on it to the exclusion of all others.
It is not so much a hatred as it is an acknowledgement that it costs too much, does too little each year, and robs us of billions of dollars of opportunities that could have benefitted us greatly.
Most likely the contractors that designed and built the radar units did not have the right to use the spectrum.
So they lobbied the politicians and military departments to take it from the holder so they could use it without paying them.
Its been done before with the miniature radar systems now used in missiles. They took it from the designer who developed it for motion detectors in the home.
The government never cleaned up the L band systems completely out of the spectrum before they let the FCC auction it off. They also said that they would continue to remove equipment that used it after the auction.
I suppose that they haven’t done anything and that is what this is all about. It was a daunting task to begin with because a lot of legacy system really cannot be re=engineered to another spectral region without a very costly redesign and they would rather spend the money on war and diversity. The government had no business offering up a chunk of dirty spectrum but this became very lucrative and fashionable a few years back.
The government doesn’t have to follow it’s own rules or the rules it has agreed to with the ITU.
I see from Wikipedia that this is the resurrected LightSquared. Every agency in the government other than the FCC is opposed to their use of these bands for high powered ground transmissions, when they were allocated for satellite downlinks. Every user of GPS needs to oppose their plans, and all the aviation groups (ALPA, AOPA, etc) do. They were unworkable in 2011 and they still are in 2023. I think the stuff about ‘secret radars’ is just nonsense they are throwing in because they have lost every other argument. Using radar (by its nature high powered) in GPS adjacent bands would generate exactly the interference that everyone was trying to stop LightSquared from causing.
I am still complaining about my analog TV frequencies being stolen and sold. I’m still boycotting getting a subscription service. I guess I don’t need a TV if I’m never home.
They’re not stealing the 5G communication frequencies… Department of defense claims to just be “borrowing” or Sharing it for a while. When they need it? You know, it’s for the children!
“Key Bridge will demonstrate an adaptation of an existing commercial spectrum sharing approach for the 3.1-3.45 GHz band as a low risk solution to the coexistence issues.”
“5G communications technology is a foundational enabler for all U.S. defense modernization programs, and vital to U.S. national and economic security.”
https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2376743/dod-announces-600-million-for-5g-experimentation-and-testing-at-five-installati/
GPS is simply too important for any interference to be allowed. LightSquared/Ligado should be told to go away.