Analyst Claims Key Staff Excluded from FCC's LightSquared Proceedings

Patrick Comack, an analyst from an investment research company in Florida says that FCC staffers he spoke to directly were "very upset" about the waiver granted to billionaire Phillip Falcone's satellite broadband company LightSquared to test its planned nationwide network.

The Commission strongly denies the claim, stating the allegations are based on personal motives. 

The January 2011 waiver in question granted LightSquared conditional authority to proceed with construction for their network, despite warnings from the GPS industry that the network as planned would cause harmful interference with key aviation, aerospace, and other GPS technologies.  The conditions of the waiver prohibited the network's activation until "harmful" interference issues with GPS were resolved.  Their warnings have turned out to be accurate based on multiple reports from third party agencies.  LightSquared's recent proposed solution was met with criticism from various GPS and Public Safety advocates, due to its ineffective nature. 

Comack has stood by his allegations in subsequent interviews.  He says he does not have any personal investments in telecommunications, satellite, or GPS companies.  His company does not invest in them either.  His primary job is to make recommendations to other clients about which stocks to buy or sell.  He currently has a "buy" recommendation on Clearwire, because he believes it will compete well with LightSquared.  In the past he has projected that Sprint Nextel will ultimately buy Clearwire, which would be a big win for his investors. 

According to the Washington Post article, the FCC's spokeswoman Tammy Sun said, "These are patently false allegations from an individual whose interests are clearly compromised.  The FCC's expert staff will continue to run an open, transparent and inclusive process to address interference issues around LightSquared's proposal, which has the potential to create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic investment."

Sun said that there were three departments that jointly drafted the waiver that set LightSquared on the development fast-track.  Comack's claim does not deny that these departments were consulted, but says that the review process that normally takes place on a decision of this nature was not followed, and there are key expert staffers in the International Bureau who are upset that they were not consulted, as is normal protocol.

Comack says his recommendation to invest in Clearwire does not point to a compromise of his credibility.  In his response to the counter-allegations, he says, "Why would I lie?  I'm putting myself out there."

The most recent solution LightSquared has proposed calls for GPS technology providers themselves to use filtering technology to avoid interference. 

Congress has recently stepped into the process and passed a ruling that prohibits the FCC from spending any resources even considering the network while reports are still showing the possibility (and likelihood) of harmful interference.