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T O P I C R E V I E W
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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 posted April 13, 2012 15:42
Steen was right when he commented that I wanted the LightSquared G3/G4 terrestrial network to fail. However I did not want LightSquared to go Bankrupt. The problem with that end result is that LightSquared had bought the assets of SkyTerra, a Satellite cell phone provider. I am sure sometime you have seen Semi-Trailers with a small dome on the roof. That dome houses the transponder to track high value loads, Timing signals to television and radio stations, along with high precision GPS signals for farming and Surveyors. Think about those huge fertilizer machines going across a farm field, some are capable of changing what they apply while in motion as soil conditions change across the farm. They also help keep the driver from hitting trees at the edge of the field with the outriggers. Surveyors also use the high accuracy signals that SkyTerra sold, now all of that is in Jeopardy, Philip Falcone bet it all on his LightSquared proposal.
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted April 22, 2012 09:04
Well it appears that the FCC/GPS/Light Squared battle is not over.
Slashgear
Lawyers and money managers sure are bottom feeders.
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GrumpySteen
Member # 170
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posted April 22, 2012 13:21
No, it's pretty much over even though they haven't accepted that fact. All they've managed to do is get additional two years to redesign their system in order to make it work without interfering with GPS.
I won't say it's impossible for them to come up with some brilliant solution that nobody ever thought of to make it work, but I will say that anyone smart enough to come up with a brilliant solution to the problem would probably have been smart enough to have come up with it before the FCC tests.
If they do come up with a solution, than I say more power to them because the only problem I see with their idea is that it stomps over neighboring frequencies. If they eliminate that problem (which I think is impossible), they deserve the chance to roll their system out and see if their system is commercially viable.
If their parent company is smart, this is just a delaying tactic to allow them enough time to reorganize and split LightSquared into separate companies so that this particular venture can fail without taking down the rest of the company's operations. I have no reason to believe that they're that smart, but one can hope.
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted April 22, 2012 20:54
My thoughts are. That Harbinger started LightSquared, solely to buy SkyTerra. The pearl in that purchase was the ATC Spectrum Permit.
SkyTerra at one time was encouraging GPS manufacturers to build extra wide front ends so that they could receive SkyTerra's augmented signal from the L-1 band. I know the guys that drive the big fertilizer spreaders are worried that the subscription signal may go away. When those big spreaders are opened out they are up to one hundred feet wide. If the driver gets the end of the boom tangled up in trees it gets expensive fast.
Harbinger/Bain/Tricinda they are all vultures looking for companies that can be bought out, keep the good products and dump the rest.
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted April 27, 2012 09:54
FCC GPS LightSquared
LightSquared signs up open range
This how Sky Terra's permit should have been used, Earth to Sat Back to Earth then WiFi.
There may be problems but not interfering with GPS.
Harbinger may be able to turn a buck. They may have to put up a couple more birds!
Question would the Sat. delay cause problems with first person shooter games?
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GrumpySteen
Member # 170
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posted May 15, 2012 17:27
And there's the expected bankruptcy announcement. Chapter 11, reoganization. Watch for the company to split up in order to protect viable business lines from the collapse.
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The Famous Druid
Member # 1769
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posted May 15, 2012 19:55
quote:
Originally posted by GrumpySteen:
Chapter 11, reoganization. Watch for the company to split up in order to protect viable business lines from the collapse.
This is the weird thing about American business law.
Here in oz, bankruptcy meas the business has gone broke, it is no more, it has ceased to be, bereft of life it rests in peace, it's pushing up the daisies, it is an ex-business...
In America, it seems to mean "we don't feel like paying our bills, so we'll declare Chapter 11 and be back in a few weeks once our debts have magically disappeared."
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GrumpySteen
Member # 170
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posted May 15, 2012 21:23
Here in oz, bankruptcy meas the business has gone broke, it is no more, it has ceased to be, bereft of life it rests in peace, it's pushing up the daisies, it is an ex-business...
Unless they make a deal ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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dragonman97
Member # 780
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posted May 15, 2012 21:48
quote:
Originally posted by The Famous Druid:
quote:
Originally posted by GrumpySteen:
Chapter 11, reoganization. Watch for the company to split up in order to protect viable business lines from the collapse.
This is the weird thing about American business law.
Here in oz, bankruptcy meas the business has gone broke, it is no more, it has ceased to be, bereft of life it rests in peace, it's pushing up the daisies, it is an ex-business...
In America, it seems to mean "we don't feel like paying our bills, so we'll declare Chapter 11 and be back in a few weeks once our debts have magically disappeared."
Yes...and that's the phenomenal tale of companies such as GM.
There's something extremely wrong about the fact that they were able to shed the 'bad GM' and now rake in profits, while their creditors, stockholders, and employees got the short end of the stick. (I'm picking on GM in no small part because of a tale told to me of a friend of a friend who's father bought 'company stock' w/each GM paycheck for years and thought that would serve him and his wife quite well in retirement. Damn. ![[Frown]](frown.gif) )
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The Famous Druid
Member # 1769
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posted May 16, 2012 00:59
quote:
Originally posted by GrumpySteen:
Unless they make a deal
Yes, deals can be done, but...
1. The deal must be approved by a majority (by $ value) of creditors, who tend not to approve deals that leave themselves out of pocket while the company laughs all the way to the bank.
2. By the time the deal is being done, the company has been declared insolvent, so it's not being run by it's old management, but by a court-appointed administrator ('receiver' in aussie parlance) whose primary responsibility is to represent the interests of creditors.
It's that loss of control at (2) that makes aussie businesses reluctant to use receivership to avoid debts, the guy in control is NOT your friend.
TL;DR - American Chapter 11 is referred to as "protection from creditors" - aussie receivership is more like "surrender to creditors".
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GrumpySteen
Member # 170
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posted May 16, 2012 08:06
Actually, Chapter 11 does include surrendering control of a company to the trustee if the company's debt is greater than the company's assets.
Putting a trustee in control is a better choice than handing control of the creditors because creditors tend to be motivated to do whatever provides them with the most short-term profit, which almost always means shutting down the company, selling off the assets and firing everyone. That may happen anyway, of course, if the trustee decides that the company's continued existence will only cause more losses, but a viable company is more likely to be allowed to reorganize and emerge from Chapter 11.
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted May 16, 2012 11:14
This Broad Band Plan is one huge can of worms.
During GWB's terms he tried to push Broad-band over power lines, it was feasible but not practicable. Because the FCC sits at the discretion of the POTUS they often act as cheerleaders for what the POTUS wants.
Forget the money, its always follow the money. For the FCC they always try to please POTUS.
I find it interesting that LS2 is blaming the GPS industry for doing what SkyTerra wanted, making the receivers look at the MSS band for augmented signals.
This country is still populated near the coasts as you move inland the density/square mile really drops.
We have the finest Government that business can buy.
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dragonman97
Member # 780
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posted May 17, 2012 00:50
Huh?
You were vehemently against LightSquared - now you're for it?
I thought you had a VirginMobile MiFi - IMHO, building out cellular and going in that direction is probably the way to go to reach less-covered areas. AFAIK, the FCC, at POTUS' direction, has changed course to move away from pointless uses of the Universal Surcharge to go for broadband and the like instead. Certain ISPs/wireless carriers have been compelled to offer a dirt-cheap, but limited, offering for the 'uncovered.'
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted May 17, 2012 07:55
Dman I am vehemently against LightSquared, using weak signal bands for ground based repeaters, weak signal bands are for weak signals. LS2 bought SkyTerra, that company offered the most accurate GPS correction services. That is the part of LS2 I do not want to go under.
The sats usually put out near 100 watts and they are out in space. LS2 wanted to put 40,000 15kw repeaters at ground level, how would a GPS receiver hear the birds through all of that adjacent channel noise? That is one of the reasons that the FCC did not allow adjacent channels in the same cities, cross frequency bleed.
Have you ever travelled through Virginia? there is a small set aside of 13k sq. miles called the "National Radio Quiet Zone" This area is for "VERY WEAK SIGNAL RECEPTION".
Update we all knew this was coming:
DeLorme
Second update: You are correct
quote:
I thought you had a VirginMobile MiFi - IMHO, building out cellular and going in that direction is probably the way to go to reach less-covered areas. AFAIK, the FCC, at POTUS' direction, has changed course to move away from pointless uses of the Universal Surcharge to go for broadband and the like instead. Certain ISPs/wireless carriers have been compelled to offer a dirt-cheap, but limited, offering for the 'uncovered.'
However Virgin Mobile's MiFI is more of a hybred Dial-up super fast DSL. Very early in the wee hours it is very fast easily 900K. However during the afternoon after the kids get out of school dial-up will out perform their system. Again LS2 was planning to build out on Sprint towers. Look at their coverage maps, there is a lot of real-estate not covered. We were lucky we are just outside the orange how ever we get a very usable signal. One mile farther East and we would be in a dead zone. It all boils down to how many people could or would be served from each tower, those things are not cheap, and putting one out in the middle of no where and just south of no where else is not good planning. Example here in Mi. as one travels from Toledo Oh. to the Straights of Mackinaw most cell phones will work if you do not venture too far off of I-75, cross the Mackinaw Bridge plus ten miles you will probably be out service.
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TheMoMan
Member # 1659
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posted June 10, 2012 08:41
Follow the Money
The Verge
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