Coalition to Save Our GPS

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What Users Are Saying Across the United States

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Here's what citizens across the U.S. have to say about the importance of GPS to their professional and private lives and the costs of disruption to this vital service.

States: AL | AK | AZ | AR | CA | CO | CT | FL | GA | HI | ID | IL | IN | IA | KS | KY | LA | ME | MD | MA | MI | MN | MS | MO | MT | NE | NH | NM | NY | NC | ND | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | TN | TX | UT | VA | WA | WV | WI | WY

Alabama

"When it comes to GPS spectrum, government agencies must consult with the Defense Department on any effects. Our servicemembers who are on the ground in two wars count on an uninterrupted GPS capability to do their jobs."

"Anything that may cause GPS not to work as is currently will cost our agency more to survey land and navigate the State by automobile, plane, and vessels."

"I have been involved in the Land Surveying and the Civil Engineering Field for more than forty years and this conflict in technology will not only cripple our field and many other industries and will result in the loss of millions of dollars that have been invested in GPS equipment and training."

"GPS is vital to our work in designing water and wastewater infrastructure, surveying and other civil engineering applications. In order to provide the best quality design at the most efficient cost, we need a fully functioning GPS system. Existing technologies should not be infringed upon by other technologies."

"I work primarily in an urban setting and rely heavily on our survey grade GPS to produce accurate and cost efficient land surveys to our clients. The proposed wireless internet service that is reported to render our GPS useless when working within a certain radius of a tower site is deeply troubling to me. My company has a vested interest in protecting the technology that we rely on to produce our work. In an industry that has suffered tremendously in the last 4 years, this would be a crippling change to the way we do business."

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Alaska

"As a key enabler of the NextGenAirspace, GPS must remain robust and reliable; void of any interference."

"GPS has become a global resource. It is part of the technology leadership provided by the United States. If the use of GPS is lost in the US, then the range of products and services provided to the world by innovative US based firms will dry up. If there is no market in the US for GPS enabled devices, then the use of GPS will dry up around the world. You may as well down the satellites now. Remember that the lead will then be taken over by other nations, with their own technology and their own agenda. Those agendas will not have US interests in mind."

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Arizona

"We use gps/aprsto keep track of our search teams in the field. We have also had success locating lost persons by the GPS in their cell phone. With the interference of the GPS signal it could cost lives and is it worth that?"

"Because GPS Surveying is vital to my profession and practice."

"Our lives depend on a robust and precise GPS navigation system in aviation. Think about that next time you get on an Airliner. As a former military aviator, I know that we can and have denied the enemy the ability to have the precision of GPS when we did operations in Kosovo. I retired from the commercial aviation business and know that we had sideband problems with TV in some areas. Don't you dare compromise our GPS systems and your personal safety, heck, I mean everyone's safety. LightSquared must be made accountable and you the FCC must protect us from the beginning."

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Arkansas

"I am a small business owner and use GPS in my business in order to be competitive in today's economy. It would be a devastating setback if the GPS signal was distorted. So many companies use this technology in order to survive."

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California

"We use GPS daily in our work performing control, boundary, construction and topographic surveys. Loss of this tool would impact our business Drastically!"

"I work in a discipline that relies heavily on GPS, to collect asset location information, map features on the ground, and locate features in the field. You could say our business relies heavily on GPS reliability. I also rely heavily on the use of GPS recreationally for safety reasons when I am hiking and backpacking in the outdoors. While I am a wireless user, in my opinion no increase in signal reception quality would justify any degradation in the quality or usefulness of the GPS system."

"The use of GPS as made for public and private use is vital to my work. Its uses are so widely spread that loss of such a resource would be drastic. GPS saves thousands of man-hours per year for survey-type work."

"We are a family owned and operated farming company in the Central Valley of California. I am the 6th generation of my family to work in the business. Our farm began using GPS technology in 1999 and we have benefited greatly from this technology. It is an integral part of our business and daily operations. If the system is degraded or disrupted it would cause us great economic harm. Please let me know if there is any way that I can help. I have already contacted my Congressman, Dennis Cardoza."

"I use GPS as a tool to accurately locate points on the earth. With out GPS our work would take much longer and cost much more. We canâ€™t afford to lose this resource or the reliability it currently possesses. Please don't let our signal get stepped on CA."

"The degradation of the GPS signal could cost our Department millions. GPS is an everyday tool that must not be interrupted."

"I am an instrument rated private pilot who owns a technologically advanced aircraft (a Beech Bonanza retrofitted with modern avionics) for personal use, including a WAAS GPS and a transponder that relies on the WAAS GPS for the position to broadcast to air traffic control radars. My IFR approved GPS installation represents a substantial proportion of the value of the aircraft, and a loss of GPS in flight could be dangerous to me, my passengers, and other flights and to people on the ground. I have submitted letters to Senators Feinstein and Boxer."

"Aviators such as myself use GPS to guide our airplanes. With the movement to GPS-only navigation, the potential threat to the system is all that much higher. Personally, we all use GPS daily to guide us while we drive our cars, navigate with our iPhones and iPads, and in some cases, call for emergency services. Commercially, we depend on GPS to navigate airplanes and provide commerce services and when I'm flying as a passenger, do I really want to wonder if someone's science fair experiment, with no objective scientific oversight, is going to detract from my safety?"

"I use and depend on GPS technology for all of the Federal, State, County, City and private land surveying projects our company performs. Any loss of GPS signal due to corruption of signal will result in damages to our surveys, and make GPS a tool that can no longer be used. This will have very serious consequences. It will render our expensive GPS equipment useless. We will be forced to use 30 year old technology, increase project costs dramatically and suffer the loss of accuracy that only GPS technology can provide. My personal investment of 10 years learning GPS will be lost if LightSquared is allowed to proceed. The very thought of the loss of GPS because of one company, has made me very political, and I will do all it takes to stop the FCC permitting process."

"I have a half dozen Survey Quality GPS receivers that cost me Tens of Thousands of dollars that are soon to become Boat Anchors. Go get-em!"

"I run a CORS Real-Time Network for our surveyors. GPS is a tool that we use on a daily basis to survey. GPS saves us time and money. The impact of losing or interrupting the L1 frequency would be detrimental to our operation."

"Real-Time monitoring of very large dams and surveying on 35 plus critical structures with GPS. We have to have this tool since our structures are built in active earthquake fault zones. GPS is the best and most efficient early warning method for dam failures and possible threat to public safety."

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Colorado

"We do 90% of our field work with L1/L2 GPS receivers. The LightSquared issue would affect us in a profound and negative way."

"GPS technology is the very lifeblood of our geospatial industry! GPS cannot be compromised!"

"I provide GIS and GPS mapping services to the natural resource industry focused primarily on domestic mineral exploration and oil and gas development. I use submeter receivers with handheld accuracies in the 10-50 cm range. It is critical for me to have unobstructed (no manmade interference) access to both GPS and GLONASS signals in order to provide acceptable data and maps for my clients."

"Accurate data collection is very important for our utility, or any utility. Knowing where our power lines and other equipment are is critical for safety for our customers and crews (locates) as well as for quick outage restoration and emergency situations (natural disasters or security). Not being able to collect accurate data would increase our operational and construction expenses as well as safety issues."

"We rely heavily on our GPS devices for data collection in GIS analysis. Without our accurate data collection process the entire system will be effected including rare vegetation, wildlife habitat analysis, trails alignments studies, transportation, floodplain analysis, hydrologic fluvial studies, utilities, accessible trails studies, etc., and our entire staff of Rangers, seasonal employees, biologists, ecologists, and GIS analysts. We use our GPS data daily and with this interference from Lightsquared our data collection process will increase our costs and decrease our accuracy. They should be prohibited from using GPS wavelength frequencies because this is a matter of national security and mitigating years of higher intelligence in GIScience."

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Connecticut

"GPS is one of the only components of the road that is NOT broken. I rely on my GPS to locate unknown addresses when responding to emergency calls. We NEED GPS to stay intact!"

"As a pilot I rely heavily on the use of GPS for navigation and safety. Anything that might impact the potential operation and safety of my flight operations has me greatly concerned."

"As a yacht club our members rely on the GPS system to safely navigate waters both near and far. A breakdown in the system would put our families at significant risk."

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Florida

"GPS usage is in such wide spread use, I can not believe that FCC would allow the construction of a 4G network that would disrupt the use of everything from car navigation systems, to precise surveying and mapping throughout the US. I urgently request that FCC review the conflict to insure that both can exist harmoniously or scrap the plan immediately."

"We utilize GPS daily as part of our survey services. Any interruptions to this service would be catastrophic to our business."

"I work in at a public safety answering point (PSAP) and I am concerned about how this may affect our capabilities of locating 911 callers, calling from their cell phones."

"As GIS Manager for the county, we are very concerned that we may not be able to depend on this vital resource."

"We are a small unmanned robotics company servicing the private and government sector. We rely on GPS based systems for much of our guidance. Any threat to the GPS system would severely cripple our operations."

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Georgia

"We use high precision GPS on a daily basis. It is this company's lifeblood."

"While we understand and recognize the benefits of a next generation high-speed network that Light Squared has proposed it should not come at the expense of loosing our ability to use GPS or GNSS positioning for precision agriculture, asset tracking, or other applications that we have grown dependent on for day to day activities."

"200,000 citizens depend on our ability to send emergency services to their homes using GPS within our automated vehicle location systems - geographical information systems. Minutes count when someone is having a stroke, a child is abducted, a home is burning. Do not allow our safety to be compromised for even a moment. We are trying to build a safer, smarter country one city at a time. Protecting our GPS is vital to ensuring the integrity and spatial accuracy of our 911 system and other systems."

"Save our citizen's life, our time and money."

"GPS is a vital part of our daily functions. At our company we use GPS for a variety of purposes from updating our GIS to tying cadastral surveys to state plane coordinates."

"GPS is a critical service for Aviation and the future of NexGen - the new roadmap for Aviation navigation."

"Our company relies on GPS everyday. We are large supporters and resellers of Precision Agriculture equipment. We believe in our products and what they offer for farmers and GPS is the backbone of it all."

"Our company is solely based on Precision Agriculture which relies completely on GPS signal. We resell Ag Equipment and support our products and customers completely. We know that Precision Ag is the current and future direction for our customers and GPS is the backbone of that."

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Hawaii

"My company is based on GNSS/GPS and our clients (federal, city and state government, corporate, non profit) rely heavily on this technology for a variety of applications."

"We are a private, non-profit organization of professionals and students from the federal, state, county, education, and private sectors of Hawaii's geospatial community. GPS is a critical part of the infrastructure that facilitates obtaining accurate location information that is the basis of a geographic information system. GPS technology has been integrated into every aspect of modern life and is a ubiquitous presence. Even the threat of negatively affecting this reliable, effective, and proven technology should be taken seriously."

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Idaho

"GPS and its technology have become a big part of our business. To degrade this valuable tool would be a great loss to the land surveying profession and other users. LightSquared's service is not a service to anyone especially the general public!"

"We surveyors use GPS, have bought into its technology and benefit from its use during the course of our work on a daily basis. Lightsquared, no matter how important their business is, should not be allowed to threaten the livelihood of others who use GPS in their business."

"We run dozens of handheld units in our public service operations, and relay on fleet GPS radio modems to track and map our search resources when we are called. Our mapping is GPS based as well. We do not wish that these capabilities be compromised by a for profit private enterprise."

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Illinois

"My company and myself use GPS technology both as a consumer and in the professional marketplace. Many of us utilize GPS in our vehicles and rely on it to safely navigate us from our home or office to client's locations, conferences and business travel. We utilize it in an aircraft for guidance and navigation as well as a professional service for aerial photography acquisition and photogrammetry. Our company also resells equipment in the professional market to those interested in GIS mapping, surveying, engineering, construction and machine control. To allow this to be granted would be detrimental to our industry."

"We use GPS and RTK systems extensively for the application of crop protection products and plant nutrients. This technology has advanced agriculture nutrient management on the farm. Interference to GPS would be very detrimental to the network agriculture crop producers and companies like ours now rely on for operations. Technology advancement should be complimentary in approach to GPS systems. Allowing one product to interfere with another forcing obsolescence is not reasonable regulation."

"GPS is used by farmers and members of the ag service industry every day to improve efficiency. To lose this valuable utility, or incur significant costs to remedy the problems caused by any company, in this case LightSquared, in unfathomable. To allow it to happen would be very harmful to a significant segment of our economy."

"We use GPS guidance for our farming operation and while we are also dependent on cell phones and utilize the Internet regularly, our GPS guidance is indispensable for our business! Please keep us informed as to what we can do to help resolve this potential threat to our livelihood! Thank you in advance!"

"I am a Deputy Sheriff and use my GPS EVERYDAY at work, this would adversely affect my ability to do my job and response times to calls."

"LightSquared's plans are a grave threat to our business as an agricultural machinery dealer. Farmers have invested billions in GPS automated machine guidance equipment which will be virtually useless if LightSquared is allowed to proceed with its plans. Ridiculous that the FCC has not stopped them. Baffling."

"We're concerned about possible GPS interference created by LightSquared proximity to the signal and oppose their use of this spectrum."

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Indiana

"We made a very large GPS purchase of GPS Equipment and have used GPS for years. GPS belongs to the American people and benefits the American people as a whole. We rely on it for safety, security and its commercial applications. A private entity has no right to destroy this national treasure for their own profit."

"We are concerned about anything that will potentially disrupt or interfere with the GPS signal spectrum that our customers are using. We and our customers have made and are currently making a substantial investment in equipment using GPS technology and do not want to have an investments wasted."

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Iowa

"Dear Sirs I have been using GPS on my farm since 1993 and discovered the value it could bring to others in the ag community. Three years later I started helping area farmers and ag related business with the integration of GPS technologies into their work place. Over the years I've witness the explosive growth of GPS being used in the production of food grains. The trend in the last 6 years is to use GPS receivers with more accuracy (RTK) and solely relying on it for critical operations in the production of food grains. The thought of taking that technology away from the users is a much more serious matter then apparently what the FCC or LightSquared have shown. Every effort must be made to ensure that the continued use of GPS in the ag sector is not interrupted. I'm all for high speed internet."

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Kansas

"We utilize 5 Dual Frequency GPS Units for surveying. I certainly don't want anything to happen that might degrade our capabilities even to the slightest degree."

"Our organization is currently mapping our entire utility infrastructure in GIS format. Acquiring GPS data for the GIS mapping is a critical part of our mapping activities. Also, as a licensed land surveyor, the need to keep GPS equipment as a useful tool is of the upmost importance for most projects the city is involved with."

"We are an application service provider and use GPS in our dispatching and maintenance solutions."

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Kentucky

"It sounds like the safety of air travel will be compromised."

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Louisiana

"I am concerned that my day to day work will be disrupted. Without my GPS unit [my professional services company] will likely be shut down."

"We are actively engaged in using GPS on a daily basis, sometimes 7 days a week, all over the USA. We are a very small company and can't afford to be required to buy new/revised equipment to stay working. This is another "cooked up" solution by our politicians and an industry they favor."

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Maine

"As a surveyor, this is a great concern to me. From what I understand from the engineering simulation study put on by Garmin, my $20,000 survey grade GPS equipment will be blocked from as far away from the Lightsquared towers as 4 miles. This is completely unacceptable, as it could potentially cripple my productivity. Please reconsider Lightsquare's conditional waiver."

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Maryland

"The importance of the GPS/GNSS as a 4th utility is undeniable. The production benefits for construction, mining, landfills, etc impact our GDP as well as offer huge safety benefits. Any disruption will create catastrophic downstream effects."

"My data network and radio network works on GPS timing. My concern is mainly public safety..."

"GPS has become an essential safety tool that should not be jeopardized in any way."

"Much of our daily operations depend upon our ability to obtain survey grade GPS signals. If the reliability of the GPS signal is compromised in any way, we would incur substantial liability regarding survey accuracy. In fact we would no longer be able to provide the necessary accuracy standards required on land surveys, mapping projects and engineering control surveys on our current contracts. This alone would expose my company to serious financial liability."

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Massachusetts

"As land surveyors and civil engineers, GPS has become very important in our everyday workings. The bulk of our work is quite a ways from the closest base station, giving us an even weaker signal."

"We use survey grade GPS to establish control, perform topographic surveys and stake a myriad of proposed structures. The reduction of the functionality of the GPS will have a significant detrimental effect on our day to day operations and projects will cost more money."

"We utilize GPS technology to map rare species habitat throughout the Northeast. Our job would be much more difficult, and our results less precise without GPS."

"Land Surveying and Construction layout will be set back 20 years!"

"I am a professional land surveyor, educator and researcher in the area of Surveying, GIS and GPS. I am extremely concerned that no aspect of the Lightsquared proposal impacts the GPS signal. I currently use for sub-centimeter level work. When the receivers we use cost several thousand dollars the suggesting that WE need to upgrade our equipment to accommodate Lighsquared appals me."

"Our association members are Professional Land Surveyors, Professional Engineers and related technical professionals who use GPS every day in their work. Survey grade GPS systems are critical for accuracy-and anything that would make our work less accurate."

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Michigan

"The financial impact to surveyors and survey companies will be enormous if the use of our GPS survey equipment is impaired or blocked. Survey grade GPS is an investment that can not be disregarded and has become an indispensable tool for surveyors throughout the world. To benefit one group of users for a convenience of better cell phone usage, while impairing many users who are making a living by using professional grade equipment, is not a trade-off that should even be on the table."

"Our customers rely on RTK precision GPS to do their job. Any jamming that causes this equipment not to work or that degrades precision to a certain extent would make the system inoperable, making them unable to run the equipment."

"My company creates, distributes and maintains Mobile police software that utilizes AVL or Automatic Vehicle Location. This software is fed by GPS hardware; if the GPS system were to be jeopardized, it would cause the location of patrol cars along with fire vehicles to be unknown or at the very least, untrusted. Furthermore, our CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) software significantly leverages unit locations for use in dispatch; if the GPS subsystem were threatened, this proximity dispatching system would no longer properly function, putting literally millions of lives at risk."

"I think people making these stupid decisions should know how they work and perform research before they make dumb decisions like this. What the heck, let's place boaters and the shipping industry in danger of running aground since many of them rely on GPS tracking when using autopilot... For the stupid it is a device that follows a manually input route then follows the GPS signals to prevent running into the ground or rocky shallow bottoms. STOP THIS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!! "

"I use GPS as a tool for both teaching and research. A degradation in the quality of the GPS signal would affect my ability to both train students and collect quality data for many different research projects."

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Minnesota

"Our organization relies on GPS everyday to provide valuable services to our clients. Without GPS, we will not be able to provide the same level of service that our clients have come to expect from us, and many jobs may be threatened."

"GPS is used regularly in my ag-aviation business. I am concerned to not only lose aircraft guidance, but the ability to use GPS to avoid safety hazards."

"We own a farm in Minnesota where we use Precision Farming Systems in nearly every on-farm task and operation. The aim of this effort is to improve our efficiency and to ensure that we are environmentally responsible. The foundation for all Precision Farming applications is the Global Positioning System (GPS). We depend on GPS for both our guidance and documentation systems. Guidance improves our efficiency. Documentation improves our effectiveness. At present, we are advancing our farm management systems by adopting RTK which improves our accuracy and, therefore, our efficiency and effectiveness. We have used Precision Farming concepts and processes for 16 years...We are committed. We cannot afford GPS degradation from any source. In fact, we are looking forward to continuous improvement (not degradation) in the GPS system to sustain our operation. The future of American Agriculture will be increasingly dependent on Precision Farming...GPS availability is a critical component of that future."

"GPS has been the cornerstone of our products and services in the Upper Midwest/Rocky Mountain states for almost 20 years. We have thousands of customers using this technology on a daily basis who have leveraged their business on this technology. The interruption or disruption of this signal has a domino negative impact for our business as well as all of our clients business with no logical alternative."

"The potential impacts to precision agriculture are of high concern."

"GPS is becoming the defacto standard for airborne navigation. As a pilot myself, the threat to GPS reception is a potentially hugely dangerous situation that must be avoided for the continued safety of all air travelers."

"GPS is used throughout our farming operation for guidance, location of crop varieties, location of tile lines, marking of areas of concern for tiling, weed control etc."

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Mississippi

"My perspective is from a one man GPS surveying operation. I have heard some talk about the general negative economic impact that the LightSquared broadband project may impose on the GPS end user population. However, the negative economic impact this project will impose on me, a small business owner, concerns me on another level. Simply put, surveying with GPS is my livelihood and is where the buck stops. Meaning a lifestyle change of some sort will be in order for me if this project does in fact compromise the GPS signals. I have been saying for years that a technology a person does not fully understand or can troubleshoot and fix himself, may be his downfall if he relies to heavily on it."

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Missouri

"We rely on this technology to assign addresses within our County as well as many of our agencies we dispatch for utilize GPS for responding to emergency calls."

"As someone who uses GPS on nearly a daily basis in the field of land surveying I have many concerns with our signals being interfered with. We must be able to stand together and have a unified voice in order to stop this project from destroying the functionality of a very powerful system in our business."

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Montana

"As a surveying company we use GPS systems for most if not all of our surveying needs. Without GPS the costs of surveying would get very expensive not only for the general public, but also for the government themselves."

"GPS signal acquisition is critical to our business. We provide geospatial data collection and analysis for our customers among other services. If GPS signals are compromised, our small business will have to forego hiring and perhaps cease to exist all together."

"Our company works with farmers to provide a safe, affordable, reliable food supply. GPS signal is key to that production and we see LightSquaredâ€™s a newcomer that threatens this industry without offering any reasonable way of fixing the problem that is being created."

"We depend on GPS for high-precision surveying and mapping. Our investment in GPS equipment is large and our ability to efficiently serve the public would be greatly reduced if we experience interference with the GPS signals. Tell Light-Squared to find a different frequency."

"We are an engineering and land surveying company. We have invested heavily in GPS equipment and technology over the past 20 years. We have developed GPS control networks and CORS stations at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The loss or diminishment of survey GPS would be devastating to our company."

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Nebraska

"We sell and service GPS equipment to the Construction and Agriculture industries. Anything that interferes with the signal will have a significant impact on our customers and their ability to utilize GPS to build safe roads and grow food to feed the world."

"As a local government, we rely on these GPS signals to maintain the E911 database. The accuracy of our data would be severely affected by a reduction or loss of signal."

"GPS is vital to our ability to sell and service guidance and product control equipment. Without these things, over application of fertilizer, pesticides, and seed will again become prevalent."

"I operate a company that specializes in precision agriculture. My entire business is built around high accuracy GPS positioning. Any interruption of the GPS that we use would be severely detrimental to my business and to the hundreds of my customers that rely on this positioning for their farming operation. GPS continues to improve overall efficiency and productivity on the farm. To continue feeding this ever growing world we need to feed the people before we feed their need for high speed data."

"I am a small farmer in western Nebraska. I only farm 600 acres. In order to keep my ground from blowing in the spring and causing problems for people driving on the Interstate I decided to start strip tilling instead of disking. That way the ground wouldn't blow. If you strip till you have to be able to plant on the same narrow strip. It requires a guidance system. I can't drive straight enough by myself to use a strip till system without my guidance system (I'm 58 years old). If I don't have guidance I don't think I'd have the ambition to keep farming the old way. By the way, I spent $40,000 on my guidance system, $20,000 for my strip till system, and have changed my operation in other ways cause of this guidance program. My yields have gone up. If this farm has to be farmed the old way the yields will go down and the people on the interstate will have to deal with ground blowing and causing a safety issue. Please don't let my guidance system go by the wayside because of the interference I've been reading about."

"We use GPS technology in our farming operation. It is a vital part of precision farming which makes the use of fertilizer and other chemicals much more efficient. The new LightSquared company is trying to implement a situation that would greatly interfere with too many other aspects of the GPS world."

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New Hampshire

"GPS is too valuable to allow anything to endanger its signal, particularly since the government has turned off LORAN and there is absolutely no backup navigation system."

"As GPS has become ubiquitous for marine and air navigation, earlier systems have either been forgotten or dismantled. Loran is gone at sea and street maps are outdated and hard to find on land. Clearly GPS has become a national and international resource which must be maintained and protected."

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New Mexico

"I use GPS on a daily basis for both personal and professional/career needs."

"AOPA's members and the air travelers who depend on GPS simply cannot afford the uncertainty of the current and future potential dangers to the GPS system that has become and will continue to be increasingly crucial to all aspects of safe and efficient air travel."

"We utilize the GPS when we are on missions to find lost people/planes that have crashed. This is VITAL to a safe and accurate search."

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New York

"We use GPS to recommend ambulances to medical emergencies, locate cell 911 callers, display the locations of fire apparatus and EMS vehicles on maps to dispatch and incident management personnel, assist responding units with locating callers and to synchronize the clocks of systems, networks and devices critical to public safety."

"We utilize GPS signals in approximately 75% of the survey work we perform. The loss of this capability will put us out of business."

"GPS is a critical component of what I use everyday, it would be impossible for me to perform in my profession without it."

"My firm uses GPS on a daily basis to collect geospatial data on a variety of projects. Our clients represent multiple business sectors, including industry, real estate, transportation, planning, defense, municipal and public utilities, education, and entertainment. To revert back to the "old way" of geospatial data collection with conventional surveying methods would stifle economic growth and vital public services."

"The integrity of GPS used by aviation, mariners and interstate commerce as well as the public should not be compromised in any way. The negative economic impact of questionable GPS accuracy is far greater then allowing new broadband services to exist on frequencies that cause GPS interference."

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North Carolina

"GPS provides the tools to furnish the public with high accuracy horizontal & vertical control data across mountains and valleys of Western NC. GPS provides the tools to better implement Flood Mapping in the mountains of Western NC to continue to protect the public against loss of life and property. Save Our GPS!"

"GPS is used in various parts of our daily lives. I personally use it for surveying, navigation on the road as well as navigating on the ocean. To have this technology interfered with is something that should not be allowed to happen. We need to take a stand to protect what has become an integral part of professional and personal lives."

"I use GPS for land surveying purposes on a daily basis. It allows me to be more proficient and thus saving my clients money. If this is taken away, it could damage numerous businesses."

"We use GNSS on virtually every project we have. At minimum we tie our survey to the state plane coordinate system using GNSS, but in addition, we seek to employ our GPS rover to collect data on every site that has conditions which allow us to do so."

"We use GPS L1 and L2 signals to take static observations, process them through OPUS, and get state plane coordinates on all my surveys. All of my surveys must be tied down to Grid coordinates. The only way we are profitable is if we have very speedy turn around on our surveys. Without GPS that would be impossible."

"The Use of GPS is an integral part of our daily work flow. The loss of our current GPS Technology would be devastating to the Company ability to produce a profit."

"We use our GPS Units for Emergency Management and 911 projects that must have extremely accurate and precise location. If the GPS signal is weakened, it could put my people lives at risk."

"Our town's Engineering Department utilizes GPS in the establishment of Engineering Survey Studies and Design. To damage the wave spectrum with interference will create erroneous GPS data costing incalculable costs in design flaws and increase the public cost in construction of infrastructure."

"Here in the NC alone, more than 2,500 licensed professional land surveyors and 22,000 licensed engineers use high-precision GPS equipment in their everyday field work. GPS has become an essential tool for most land surveyors and geomatics professionals today and it is imperative that these GPS signals are not jeopardized by broadband technology."

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North Dakota

"We are a conservation group who works both nationally and internally restoring and protecting wetlands and native prairie grasses to enhance habitat for waterfowl and approximately 600 other species of animals that use the habitat we build and protect. Since we are global we need the GPS survey grade equipment to accomplish our mission internationally. Without survey grade GPS and the RTK signals our job can not be accomplished."

"We use GPS everyday for surveying. If our coverage is compromised it would be catastrophic to our production."

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Ohio

"GPS technology is used by many people / organizations. I personally use it gorgeocaching and back country travel. The "fast track" that the FCC has used is totally unacceptable and smacks of things that are unbecoming a federal agency."

"Reliable GPS signals are critical to IFR approaches to many general aviation airports."

"The Professional Surveyors and related members of our organization are extremely concerned regarding the effect approval of LightSquared would have on their ability to utilize GPS in the practice of Surveying."

"We utilize GPS on a daily basis for our survey work. If there became are problem it would drastically increase the cost of our work, which would then drive up the cost to our clients."

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Oklahoma

"Tens of thousands of survey crews utilize centimeter-grade GPS on a daily basis in the US. This use of technology saves government and the general public untold millions of dollars each day in professional and technical fees due to the labor savings GPS provides over conventional surveying methods. Imagine that, overnight, an entire segment of the economy was set back by 20-plus years technology-wise. The financial impact on our economy would be tremendous. Interference with the L band will cripple an entire user segment upon which the economy relies so heavily. This cannot be allowed to happen."

"GPS is vital to our business and industry. ANY disruption will produce incomprehensible effects."

"We are a land surveying company with offices in Oklahoma and Texas. We work primarily for the oil & gas industry. We run about 50 crews, each one with survey-grade GPS receivers."

"As a small land surveying company we feel threatened by the possibility of GNSS or GPS being compromised or rendered unusable unnecessarily. Our investment in current technology is extraordinary; to make that equipment unreliable or unusable would very likely cause us to fail as we could not overcome the loss of asset nor generate enough income to replace. At the same time the publicâ€™s investment in current technology is deeply imbedded in many forms of data dependent on GNSS or GPS and the cost of rendering that obsolete can not be imagined. Please do not take any chance with this threat. Please take the advice of all of the professional and academic organizations and oppose recently FCC granted a waiver to a company called LightSquared that allows them to repurpose the satellite spectrum immediately neighboring that of the GPS. This is serious!"

"We regularly utilize GPS technology for many surveying and data collection applications. This would severely limit our ability to fulfil our client's needs."

"I sell GPS for a living. This would just devastate my business."

"I use GPS everyday as do many other Land Surveyors. Any threat to GPS should be investigated prior to approval by the FCC."

"We are a Land Survey company that uses GPS daily. The loss of GPS in our industry would cause great harm to construction of infrastructure through out the country. Accuracy, costs and deadlines would all be affected for construction projects. On a personal note, I also worry about military and first responders not having use of the GPS signal."

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Oregon

"The potential of losing this much needed tool will be a disaster for the entire surveying community in this state. We must all join in this battle to defend our spectrum allocation, or lose it."

"Mapping and Survey grade GPS sales is about 70% of our business. Sounds like the new 40,000 towers would possibly hinder the use of conventional GPS, which would pretty much put us out of business."

"Our surveying firm uses GPS technology on almost every job. Loss of GPS would cost us and our clients untold amounts of money."

"We have a significant investment in GPS receivers that we use in urban and rural locations for surveying control, GIS mapping, resource management, and other functions. I'm very concerned with the reports on the negative impact of "LightSquared" on our ability to continue to perform our duties and serve the public. It seems that this project was rushed through without the usual considerations that should have been in place to protect existing assets."

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Pennsylvania

"We are heavily invested in the GPS machine control and surveying industry."

"From a business standpoint, our firm increasingly works in urban areas where the 4g network signal will be the strongest and we will be relying on GPS and our vendor partners to complete projects in this environment. From a national security standpoint, I refer to information in Dr. Paiva's article in the April issue of POB. He quotes Eduardo Falcon regarding a foreign threat to our GPS-based service. My question is although LightSquared is a US company, what prevents that firm from being absorbed by an international firm with foreign interests other than those of the United States? I believe the studies must also address the geo-political and security aspects of this application."

"For obvious reasons of safety in navigation, especially to IFR aircraft."

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Rhode Island

"The professional land surveyors who visit and interact on my site, along with the surveyors I interact with daily on various social networking sites, are gravely concerned about this issue. Additionally, as a practicing professional land surveyor who uses survey grade GPS, I'm concerned too."

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South Carolina

"Our surveying group is the largest social support network for professional land surveyors on the planet. Naturally, all of our jobs are in jeopardy if we do not save GPS."

"We sell to and support Surveyors and Mappers. This is an industry we cannot do without and it relies heavily on GPS availability."

"I survey with GPS on a regular basis, not to mention the impact it will have on our EMS, commercial transportation and military. I can only guess at the other industries and professions that will be impacted if this is allowed to go through without the checks and balances it needs."

"Our company is operating a 54 GNSS network providing Real Time Positioning for industry, agriculture, engineering, road construction and surveying. Our reference stations are all located in the urban areas across the state. Any interference will cause a loss of GNSS signal crucial for our users."

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Tennessee

"As police officers we use our GPS equipment to assist in locating address also using the GPS technology for tracking criminals. Without this we would be at a loss as we were in the olden days of police work."

"We are a supplier of high precision measuring equipment, including both mapping and survey grade GNSS. A threat to GPS is not just a threat to our sales, but it is a threat to the way our customers make a living. Land Surveying, Engineering and Construction industries rely heavily on the accuracy and reliability of their GPS equipment. GPS has dramatically affected the time needed many measuring and locating tasks and slowing those processes down or reverting to slower methods will inevitably lead to higher costs and longer projects."

"We are currently in development of a new GPS based product. Years and millions of dollars would be wasted if GPS performance is degraded or interrupted."

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Texas

"I have been in business for 11 years. It has taken an incredible amount of time and effort to create a profitable client base. In order to service this client base it has become imperative to have GPS capabilities."

"I have worked in precise GPS since 1984 and am most concerned with ANY threat to this tool which has revolutionized precise surveying and navigation since GPS became operational. I am active in various geodetic and industry groups utilizing GPS in various aspects of geospatial data management. We would hate to have this valuable resource negatively impacted."

"We are concerned that the LightSquared transmissions will severely impact GPS. Specifically, the company is concerned that 1) High end GPS receivers used for differential reference stations and survey work will be interfered with due to the relatively broadband GPS receiver reception; and 2) That GPS corrections transmitted via L-band satellites will be totally masked by the LightSquared transmissions. While the above are our immediate concerns, we also firmly believe that millions of GPS users throughout the US will be negatively impacted by the LightSquared transmissions. The FCC's waiver to the benefit of LightSquared reeks of political influence over better judgment."

"GPS has become a very valuable tool we use everyday to help lower the cost of land surveying to our clients."

"We use precision farming practices that rely on GPS to stay competitive in todayâ€™s marketplace while using GPS to preserve the environment by using RTK corrections to place our fertilizer and seed in the most efficient manner."

"As a combination Civil Engineering/Land Surveying Firm specializing in a broad range of design, construction, and land planning arenas, it should be obvious to any regulatory commission how inherent GPS is in providing not only real-time, but real-accurate data during economic times where every minute -and penny counts."

"It is imperative to protect our nation's investment in the GPS infrastructure as dependence on the system spans users in our military, national security, first responders, transportation, education, and perhaps the largest sector -private industry and private citizens (tax payers). Disabling, degrading or disrupting GPS signals would profoundly and adversely affect each of our everyday lives."

"GPS has become a very valuable tool we use everyday to help lower the cost of land surveying to our clients."

"I use GPS for automotive navigation and hiking. I would find it difficult to quickly get from one place to another if GPS wasn't available at all. I hope that Lightsquared can see the light regarding their broadband deployment's interference with GPS."

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Utah

"As a manufacturer of mobile computing solutions that serve several outdoor markets that rely on GPS as a core technology, we are concerned about activities that may threaten the delivery of this critical service to our customers."

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Virginia

"Our emergency communications rely heavily on location based data. We have GPS functionality in our emergency vehicles which allow our dispatchers to make recommendations based on unit location. If this feature becomes corrupted emergency services will be hampered to include increased response times."

"We are a value added reseller and integrator of high performance GNSS equipment. After learning and following the probable interference issues with GPS at the L1 frequency (which would cause the user not to be able to use L2) we are concerned that L1 at a product would be jammed and deemed unusable in many parts in the U.S. This includes the Washington D.C. area where we are based."

"My livelihood is based on positioning technology. GPS is a large part of this. GPS navigation has become a necessity for commerce and free trade."

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Washington

"Our county has placed a huge investment into a real-time CORS infrastructure. The system uses a series of geodetic mounted receivers that provide static and real time GPS reference data to the public. This network and others like it, RGPS, WSRN, & ORGN are the base control for cadastral surveys, construction, GIS, vertical realization, topographic/tectonic monitoring; it is the critical tool used by both government and private parties in our area for any project needing spatial control. I join this group not only as a voice of my network's users, but all surveyors, and professional users of precision GPS."

"Myself and others of People for Puget Sound use GPS technology to delineate areas of critical salmon habitat and to help with monitoring restoration activities for these locations. Without this technology our science would be compromised and our jobs would become more difficult."

"We provide GPS tracking and analytic solutions for Commercial vehicle, Pupil Transportation, and Government fleet markets. We have over 100K units in operation across the United States. We have several thousand units in operation around the Las Vegas area alone. We are very concerned with LightSquared plans. Thank you for your ongoing efforts."

"Dear Representative/Senator: I am contacting you to express my concerns about a serious threat to our nation's Global Positioning System (GPS). Earlier this year, the FCC allowed a satellite company called LightSquared to build a ground-based wireless network using its satellite frequencies. Unfortunately, this new wireless network will operate in the frequency band immediately adjacent to the GPS band. This wireless network is so much more powerful than the GPS signal, it will likely interfere with or completely block many GPS receivers across the country. GPS is a vital nationwide utility that is used every day by consumers, businesses and government users for a variety of critical functions such as air traffic control, E 911, synchronizing electrical and communications networks. We cannot allow this vital service to be degraded or destroyed. I would urge you to contact the FCC to express your concerns over this new wireless network and the threat it poses to GPS. Thank you for your consideration."

"GPS is a public resource that must be protected from interference. This is what the FCC is for, why are they falling down on the job?"

"Our customers consist almost entirely of first responders at US government facilities around the world. This interference issue will severely impact both our company and customers in equipment, service costs, and downtime."

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West Virginia

"As an engineering company performing surveying, this would hurt our ability to perform a lot of surveys. We are a heavy user of GPS."

"We use GPS in Academics from biology through engineering and would not like to see the signal disrupted."

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Wisconsin

"As a professional land surveyor I am appalled at the thought of the GPS network knowingly being disrupted. This is an issue that extends far beyond surveying and engineering. It affects regular citizens on a daily basis and most may not even realize it. The word must get out and proper testing must be proven before this application is approved."

"We utilize survey grade GNSS on a daily basis. Any interruption to it usefulness would be detrimental to our productivity."

"Our firm is invested heavily in GPS and it is a proven tool within the surveying and engineering industries. Disrupting our firms ability to use this technology, and thousands of others like us, hurts our ability to offer our private and public sector clients quality and cost effective services...on a scale that is difficult to quantify."

"If my investment in GPS technology goes away or is even hampered, I will need to regress 30 years, and I will not be able to offer professional services anymore. Translated that means I will be OOB, out of business."

"Our livelihood depends on this technology and we have a large sum of our budget invested in the unimpeded use of the GPS system. It is already occasionally out of service or limited by enough factors such as foliage, multipath etc. Please make sure this does not ruin our system."

"We use GPS technology for surveying every day, and the tax payers would pay tremendously if that technology were lost or affected in any way."

"GPS positioning is the life blood of surveying, engineering, law enforcement, agriculture and many other businesses. Don't mess with a good thing."

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Wyoming

"I use survey grade GPS every day and we have enough problems with interference in the radio signals already without having a signal that is so strong and capable of disturbing the L-Band GPS signal."

"I use GPS on a weekly basis. The company I work for an engineering company designing roads. We use GPS in every phase of design. Before a project can start GPS is used to develop a control system and get a topographic map of the area. During design GPS is used to confirm where utilities are in relation to design elements. After the design has been finished GPS is used to stake the road that has been designed. The whole process of surveying can be done with just one surveyor. This lowers the final cost of projects and saves towns, cities, counties, states, and the federal government money. GPS is essential to our business."

"We operate a large row crop farm and rely on our GPS in our equipment to drive our tractors and combine straight through the field."

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