That is the way government works. They made perfectly good analog TVs obsolete with a stroke of the pen, and owners were forced to go buy new (no, those set top boxes don’t work, they fry the TV hooked to them in 90 days).
They also did it on analog cell phones. Analog cellemetry alarm devices, same thing on aircraft emergency transmitters and aircraft radios.
Just throw your old GPS away and buy the “New and Improved” version. It is the American way.
Just throw your old GPS away and buy the “New and Improved” version. It is the American way.
One of the problems is that there may be no effective way to come up with the "New and Improved" version without major changes. Those people who understand the design constraints of RF filters know that it's technically possible to have rejection capabilities of the scope needed to keep LightSquared ground-base transmitters from causing problems...but it may not be economically feasible, or impossible to implement the filters so GPS units will fit in your pocket. There is also the question about shielding the RF portion of the unit, and preventing RF leakage through the power connector or accessories connector.
In short, this is not a problem that can be fixed by GPS vendors just slapping a Band-Aide on their existing designs.
The obvious solution is for LightSqared to swap spectrum space with someone, instead of asking for a waiver of the rules that will impact the GPS industry. (Or, they could put up more satellites.)
It's the job of the person with the transmitter to mitigate inference problems with other licensed users, and GPS is indeed implemented by a licensed user. LS has to be the one to deal with it, or stop operation of ground-based transmitters. Period.
On the flip side - once digital transmissions hit the scene, it was inevitable that this would happen - television stations weren't about to maintain two sets of transmitters for the convenience of it. In some cases technology will not be stopped, else we would have separate roadways for those who prefer horse and buggy over automobile.
That’s beyond dumb. I have a backup converter box in case my cable goes out. It works fine.