L&W -Connecting our Customers since 1984

Swimming Eagle of Baton Rouge

2012-01-23T15:09:00.000-06:00

You just don't get to see this very often, watch to the end and enjoy the awesomeness of this bird!

Thanks to a great friend from my days at Aramco for sending this!

Marc

"ITS A CRISIS SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IF WE DON'T ACT NOW!

2012-01-21T10:58:00.001-06:00

Apparently LightSquared lobbyists have been unsuccessful in getting the laws of physics repealed, and have now shifted to the "Its a crisis, someone is going to die if we don't act now" tactic to attempt to entice the FCC to rule in their favor.

In an article in Urgent Communications Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, warned the public safety industry, “The satellite company, in and of itself, is not sustainable over the long term — we know that,” Carlisle said. “It’s too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years. This is why you see a lot of satellite companies that have gone through restructuring.” he then goes on to warn, "As long as we have a viable business, we will always be committed to our public-safety solutions,” . . . “We’ve got cutting-edge technology that nobody else has, and we’ll continue to be committed to that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find our way through this thicket and make sure that this capability will be provided into the future.” One presumes that Carlisle was referring to the push to talk satellite service that public safety agencies sometimes depend on, but but if you carefully read Carlisle's comments I am not sure that is what he means at all.

But none the less, the message is clear, LightSquared is clearly using the "ITS A CRISIS someone is going to die if we don't act now" tactic in an attempt to coerce the public safety industry and their unions to lobby for LightSquared.

In reality, LightSquared has lost the technical argument (the facts), lost the legal argument, and has now entered the speak loudly an forcefully part of their campaign to get their spectrum repurposed!

I know LightSquared doesn't particularly like to answer practical questions about its network deployment but here are two questions, relative to the push to talk satellite argument they are now making, I am posing to LightSquared:

1. How is the low powered push to talk satellite system used by public safety going to co-exist in a high powered (relatively) terrestrial based LTE network, without having those pesky laws of physic's repealed?

2. When LightSquared's terrestrial network is fully deployed and operational why would LightSquared continue to invest millions every 15 years to launch a new satellite to support a market that LightSquared has admitted is ". . . too small of a market to support the capital investment needed to launch a new satellite every 15 years."?

Marc

LightSquared poised to lobby for the Obama Administration to repeal selected the laws of physics!

2012-01-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

From today's addition of Fierce Wireless,

LightSquared, whose principal investor is a very large Democratic Party supporter, has once again had the door shut on their plan to re-purpose spectrum allocated for satellite communications into a nationwide wholesale network, when yet another study group has concluded that the laws of physics do apply and that the network, if it were ever to be built, would essential destroy the effective use of GPS in the United States.

It has been rumored however that the LightSquared lobbyists have a proposal ready for Congressional action that will appeal the laws of physics that are apparently stopping LightSquared's system roll out! An unnamed source has indicated that Democrats in Congress are ready to fast track this legislation and the President, an investor in LightSquared, will sign it into law as soon as it hits his desk.

Marc

LightSquared faces new roadblock after U.S. study finds GPS interference

By Phil Goldstein

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Wholesale LTE provider LightSquared faces new challenges to its plans to deploy its network after a federal advisory panel said on Friday that LightSquared's proposed network continues to interfere with GPS receivers and that no further testing is needed as a result. However, LightSquared sharply criticized the advisory board's work as "unfair and shrouded from the public eye" and threatened potential litigation over the issue.

In a letter to the sent to Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is conducting tests of LightSquared's network, the National Space-Based Position, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board said that testing of both LightSquared's original network plans and subsequent modifications show that LightSquared's proposed terrestrial network still presents harmful interference to GPS receivers. The panel advises the federal government on GPS issues.

"There appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS," Ashton Carter, deputy secretary of defense, and John Porcari, deputy secretary of transportation, wrote in the letter. "As a result, no additional testing is warranted at this time."

The decision of the advisory panel is not binding, and the NTIA is still conducting its own analysis. The NTIA said the panel's recommendation with "help inform" its decision before it makes its recommendations to the FCC.

LightSquared blasted the advisory panel as being too close to the GPS industry and for not testing filtering solutions proposed by LightSquared to mitigate GPS interference. "LightSquared today urges the government, under the leadership of the FCC and NTIA to recommit to a fair and transparent process," Terry Neal, a LightSquared spokesman, said in a statement. "Test results must be re-evaluated by unbiased officials and engineers. Testing must proceed in cooperation with all parties--LightSquared, government end-users, and GPS manufacturers--to ensure effective and appropriate guidelines are in place."

Meanwhile, while LightSquared's network sits in regulatory limbo, the company keeps on signing up wholesale customers. LightSquared inked a wholesale deal with Hometown Telecom, a carrier specializing in low-cost long distance calls to India. The deal is LightSquared's 37th wholesale agreement.

LightSquared in a panic based on PNT Board Recommendation

2012-01-15T23:41:00.002-06:00

Looks as if LightSquared has decided that since the science is against them on the interference issue with GPS receivers they will now argue "conflict of interest" about one member on the PNT Advisory board. I suppose the old adage from the legal community that goes, "if the facts are against, you argue the law, if the law is against you, speak loudly and forcefully! It seems that the LightSquared folks will be raising their voice very soon! Notice that the article does not mention the fact that the LightSquared Chairman happens to have very close ties with and raised funds for the election of the current President.

Marc
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1. LightSquared urges probe of GPS advisory board member

By Phil Goldstein

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Wholesale LTE provider LightSquared is urging a probe of a federal GPS advisory board member, arguing that he has a conflict of interest because he also serves on the board of Trimble, which is opposed to LightSquared's network deployment plans.

LightSquared filed a petition late Wednesday with NASA Inspector General Paul Martin over the board member, Bradford Parkinson, sometimes referred to as the "father of GPS" for his role in developing the technology for the military. Parkinson serves as the vice chairman of the National Space-Based Position, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board, which advises the federal government on GPS issues, and also serves as a board member for Trimble, which is part of a coalition of companies that have argued LightSquared's terrestrial network would cause harmful interference to GPS receivers. In December, results of GPS testing conducted by the advisory board were leaked to the media and showed continued interference from LightSquared's network.

In its petition, LightSquared said Parkinson may have violated federal conflict of interest rules, and argued that if LightSquared's network deployment is approved by regulators, Trimble could be hurt financially because the company would need "to address the problematic design and manufacturing process that has resulted in its high-precision receivers looking into LightSquared's spectrum."

Trimble is part of a group formed last March called the Coalition to Save Our GPS, which has argued that LightSquared's network will cause harmful interference and that its signal will overwhelm GPS receivers and precision-based GPS receivers in particular. LightSquared has repeatedly argued that GPS device makers are at fault because their receivers have been designed to look into LightSquared's L-band spectrum. Government testing conducted under the auspices of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is still ongoing to determine if all GPS interference concerns have been resolved.

Coalition spokesman Dale Leibach told Reuters that Parkinson's role as a GPS expert allowed him to serve at both the advisory board and Trimble. "It appears that LightSquared has now run out of solutions and has nothing left but baseless allegations about process," Leibach said.

Pressure is mounting on LightSquared to get approval from regulators at the NTIA and FCC. Last week Philip Falcone, the head of the hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, which is the chief backer of LightSquared, met with FCC officials to press the company's case and argue for its plans to mitigate interference. Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) has given LightSquared an extension until Jan. 31 to get FCC approval for its network, a condition of their 15-year, $9 billion network-hosting deal. However, Sprint has quit installing LightSquared equipment into its Network Vision network upgrade due to the situation.

Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said he is requesting information from GPS companies about their contacts with the White House and regulators. The requests for information are part of a deal Grassley struck to get the FCC to turn over similar info about LightSquared's dealings with the government. Grassley has been investigating the conditional waiver the FCC granted LightSquared in January 2011 to allow its wholesale customers to deploy terrestrial service.

You heard it here first!

2012-01-12T23:47:00.001-06:00

Despite the overwhelming evidence that LightSquared does cause interference with GPS receivers, I believe LightSquared will get conditional approval to move forward with its network, not because it has solved the interference issue, but because LightSquared is very well connected politically. The fix is in to allow LightSquared to move forward, but not to worry about the interference, I also predict that LightSquared's network will never actually be built out as planned!

Marc

Defense bill stacks deck against LightSquared

By Dan O'Shea

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LightSquared may be breathing a bit easier after getting a 30-day extension from Sprint on the deadline to meet the conditions of its LTE partnership with the mobile carrier giant, but eWeek reports that the controversial defense bill signed into law by President Obama just last week may further stack the deck against LightSquared.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, signed by President Obama on New Year's Eve, is drawing much more attention for its support of indefinite detainment of terror suspects, but it also includes language that applies to the LightSquared situation.

As eWeek explains, a portion of the Space Activities section of the bill indicates that the Federal Communications Commission can't allow commercial terrestrial operations that interfere with the military use of GPS, unless the FCC can prove to Congress that any concerns have been resolved. If interference is found, as it has been in initial tests involving LightSquared's spectrum-though these tests didn't involve military-related satellite receivers--the Secretary of Defense must get involved to assess the interference and report back to Congress on how it will eliminated.

At a time when the industry appears increasingly worried about its limited spectrum holdings, it's starting to seem like LightSquared's L-band spectrum doesn't have all that much value--or at least may not be worth the additional trouble. Maybe that's what Sprint is thinking, too.

Suddenly, 30 days doesn't seem all that long of an extension, given what LightSquared needs to overcome, and not just at the FCC. It seems unlikely that Sprint was aware of the NDAA language before it let LightSquared have more time, not that waiting another 30 days really affects its LTE plans.

From the CES Show today (1-12-12)

2012-01-12T12:10:00.001-06:00

Motorola announced today at the CES that it plans to make fewer smartphone models in 2012, and in the same press release announced two new Droid models. Does anyone but me see or appreciate the irony of this?

Motorola plans to make fewer smartphone models in 2012

LAS VEGAS--Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) CEO Sanjay Jha said the company intends to release fewer devices in 2012 as it focuses on producing models that can break through the smartphone clutter in the

Marc

Tower Demolition

2012-01-07T16:10:00.000-06:00

We are currently rebuilding a large mobile radio and microwave network for one of our clients in Kansas. We engineered a new tower to replace an existing Rohn 65 that could not support the new antenna loads. The new tower was installed about 1/2 mile from the existing tower and this last week (week of January 3, 2012) the old tower was demolished. I thought you all might enjoy the video of the actual demolition!

Marc

Lights Out at Arcadian Networks

2011-12-12T15:59:00.002-06:00

This just in on Arcadian Networks, the once touted Wireless Network Provider!

Just a couple of tweaks, Arcadian never actually owned any spectrum, they had an option with Access Spectrum to lease the spectrum to their customers. The flaw in Arcadian's business plan always was the fact that the spectrum was never transferred to the user, only leased. While the Arcadian folks brilliantly assembled a business plan to attract $90 million in capital from the "investors" on Wall Street, apparently all of the brilliant MBA's performing due diligence to protect the investors' money didn't bother to talk to the customer base about the obviously flawed business plan!

Read Jeff St. John's December 12, 2011 article which gets it almost right!

Marc

The Spirit of L&W

2011-11-30T06:30:00.000-06:00

As I have the opportunity to travel around the country visiting clients and helping our sales team grow our business I am always impressed with how many people recognize the L&W name. Over the years our name has become a symbol of quality in the telecommunications engineering and PM world and I am extremely proud of our accomplishments. We have an extremely competent team at L&W, but so do our competitors. So what is it that sets L&W apart? Well it is quite simply the The Spirit of L&W!

The spirit of this great team is hard to describe. You can't point to one specific thing, it is millions of selfless acts of caring by our team. It is:

It is Friday lunches
It is trivia nights and competitions
It is Hawaii shirt Fridays
It is “trash talking” between engineers and sales team folks about who are the best golfers.
It is team members recruiting new team members with passion and excitement
It is team members working all night to get a project completed
It is team members telling each other how good they are
It is mentors who let team members fail and then help them recover and grow
It is doing what others think is impossible
It is people caring more than most dare to care to support a fellow team member
It is raising $2500 in a matter of hours to support a soldier’s family who none of us know
It is a prayer chain for someone in need
It is each of our team members contributing and supporting the rest of the team as if they are their families.
It is . . . a special place our team has created.

Our team is the greatest in the world, not only because of how good they are but how good they are to their team members!

Elm Creek Cafe

2011-09-03T19:50:00.001-05:00

If you are out for a drive in Central Texas, on Highway 21 just east of the Highway 290 and its lunch or dinner time, drop in to the Elm Creek Cafe, in Lincoln, Texas. You probably wouldn't stop without a recommendation. I have been running this road for well over 30 years and have routinely passed it by. But Sue Ann (my wife) and I were meeting her sister midway between Austin and College Station to deliver something to her sister for some event her sister was hosting. We normally meet at the Walsh Chevron Station in Lincoln (just 3 miles West of the Elm Creek Cafe). The Walsh Chevron makes a great chesse buger and is a good quick place to eat. But today their kitchen didn't open until 5:00 PM so Mr. Walsh suggested the Elm Creek Cafe. So we scooted down the road three more miles west to the Elm Creek Cafe and sadly for Mr. Walsh, unless we need gas the Elm Creek Cafe has become our new meeting place.

Elm Creek Cafe is a perfect example of what is great in America. Small town patriotic small business and the best food you are going to find on Highway 21 in Central Texas and I would venture to say the best food you are going to find in a 100 mile radius of Linclon, Texas. Its 62 miles from my house in College Station and I am already planning my next visit.

If you like real home cooking in a friendly, comfortable atmosphere, then you should drop in the next time you are within 100 miles of the place. Be sure to try the fried catfish, I haven't had catfish this good since the Marble Falls Rotary Club fund raiser in 1971.

Elm Creek Cafe

Hwy 21- Lincoln , Tx

512-253-6775

Open Sunday - Thursday 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Friday - Saturday 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Closed on Mondays

You will love the food, the atmoshere and the people.

Perseverance- A Secret to Success

2011-06-12T15:52:00.000-05:00

Perseverance - to persist in pursuing something in spite of obstacles or opposition
-Webster’s Dictionary

A Secret of Success

We'd like to think that perseverance has everything to do with it. Yet in saying this, we still haven't helped you. If you were lucky enough to be part of a creative community where everyone around consistently succeeded in creating and sharing wonderful things in the world, then you would most likely gain the traits of those around you. This is why stimulus.com was created, to give you the advantage of being with a community that shares its secrets with you.

If someone told you that anything could be accomplished by just sticking with it, you'd probably agree, yet not feel any better about experiencing this success yourself. What we are going to teach you here, is a secret to perseverance.

Now people who are called "naturally talented" are merely people that gained an interest in a particular skill early in life. There is rarely anything genetically special about them. Its just that when someone learns how to do something at an early age, they tend to excel at that talent in comparison to others. Later in life when they compare their skills with others, they feel a confidence that few around them have.

When you create something, you are guaranteed to overcome obstacles. If you have a lot of experience in the area where you are creating things, then the obstacles are easy to overcome, and thus you are known to be "talented" at that skill. Again, there is nothing special about this. It is just the result of experience.

When we say "perseverance," we mean the ability to finish what you start. Take a look at the graph to the right, it illustrates the common experience of completing a complex project.

Notice that the difficulty constantly increases as the project continues. Just before the first level of success is accomplished, the difficulty level does two things:

Peaks
Levels Off

This brings us to the secret: You always know when you are about to succeed, because the difficulty level will peak to a nearly unbearable level, and then sustain. Typically people in creative environments look for this pattern over and over again. When they feel the difficulty leveling off, their second wind comes crashing in to fuel the fire of success. Sadly, most people interpret this sustained level of difficulty as an impossible barrier and a sign of when to quit, never knowing that they were only moments from their destiny.

How can this apply to your life?

Never quit, and when you think you just can't bare to continue, you are most likely about to accomplish success. Here are a few examples that always follow this rule:

Learning an instrument
Painting and illustrating
Writing stories and music
Building things

As with any skill, the more successes you have, the easier success comes, fewer obstacles get in your way. Even a large collection of finished failures can give you the confidence required to continue to succeed. Don't rely on others to support you. If this happens, it is a wonderful thing, however. Without your vision being successfully completed, the chances of someone understanding what you're attempting is minimal at best.

Good luck, and see you at the top.

Cafe Mozart - San Francisco

2008-11-30T22:03:00.006-06:00

Almost 20 years ago I was introduced to the Cafe Mozart by a great friend in the wireless industry, Chris Gillespie, the founder of the engineering firm Gillespie, Prudhon and Associates. Sue Ann (my wife) and I were in town for a short vacation with our three kids (Jim, Melissa and Lauren) right before I headed out to Saudi Arabia for an extended business trip working for Aramco.

Chris graciously took Sue Ann and I out to his favorite place in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco, Cafe Mozart. It was a treat that Sue Ann and I talk about often. An outstanding quaint restaurant at 708 Bush Street. The food was unsurpassed and the atmosphere was quiet and serene. If you find yourself in San Francisco plan to spend an evening with a client or your best friend at Cafe Mozart.

I give Cafe Mozart the Country Boy from Texas FIVE STAR rating.

To link to the Cafe Mozart resturant web site, click on the title of this post.