bachmann at a town home meeting in new hampshire, part of for a three day campaign tour. we will have that live at 3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span and c- span.org. on monday, live coverage of presidential candidate jon huntsman at the world affairs summit where he is expected to talk about foreign policy. that starts at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> this week, on "the communicators" we continue our look at lightsquared, a company that is trying to build a nationwide wireless broadband networks. host: last week we spoke with sanjiv ahuja, the chairman and ceo of lightsquared. a lot of political and scientific interests in the nationwide broadband system that lightsquared is trying to build across the u.s. this week, we will look at other perspectives on the issue of

lightsquared. now joining us is representative paul broun. he is chairman of the science- space technology subcommittee. you recently held a hearing around lightsquared. what was that hearing about and what did you learn? guest: we have been trying to get information from lightsquared, because the information we have been able to ascertain thus far is that this ground-based broadband network that lightsquared wants to put in place is being fast track through the fcc. and this administration is pushing the fcc to approve ishtsquared's spectrum which adjacent to the gps spectrum. everything that we hear from all lightsquared is that this spectrum, if it is ground-based, is going to interfere with everybody's gps in their cars and interfere with the highly

that the gpeseses science and the military community uses. so the high precision gps is probably going to be interviewed byk b-- interfered with lightsquared going ahead. the spectrum was designed for low intensity. it was designed to be a signal broadcast from satellites. but lightsquared is trying to push it through, and this administration seems to be doing it also . we have gone through a lot of documents. the administration has stalled on this. this is another example of how this administration gives political favors to its major contributors. the fcc chairman is a good example, has bundled $500,000 to the administration.

the ceo and the major stock owner of lightsquared have given maximum contributions to this campaign, to the obama campaign. they have, they set up dates to see senior administration is the same day they wrote these checks. this smells to me. the administration have given us the transparency we asked for. this administration has told the american public it will be transparent, but it has been very insecure and they have blocked every effort. not only that. when we had the hearing on september 8, it was almost a cookie cutter type of testimony from the different it officials that came before us. general sheldon testified on this issue. he has publicly said they it --

this administration has put pressure on him to change his testimony. this is deplorable. it is ridiculous. i'm ujusjust very concerned. lightsquared is subject to make billions of dollars of pocket, if they could be given the spectrum. the administration is doing everything they can to fast track it through before it has been vetted, before we have any answers about interference with gps. and every expert that we can get and have come before us has told us that gps is definitely going to be affected by lightsquared's ground-based, broadband spectrum. we have to stop this. host: so, what did you learn from when you have the national oceanic and atmospheric

administration there, the department of transportation, nasa was the fcc present? guest: no. they refused to come. we requested through our committee, we requested a lot of e-mails and documents. they have not been forthcoming at all about these documents. they have stonewalled. they have done everything they can to prevent us from getting information we need. we have oversight. we have the responsibility of making sure the american public, particularly the u.s. government, and the u.s. military will not be harmed by the spectrum. the obama administration i s just forcing it through without giving us the information so that we can even know what is going on. and they are trying to do this on a fast track so that the investors, potential investors will go ahead and invest in this business that is going to give the major people who own

lightsquared the kind of profits that are going to be tens of billions of dollars. and it is going to be an expense of the military and at the expense of the aviation community, and other entities that require high precision gps measures. lightsquared will interfere with those. the fcc needs to stop trying to fast track this. we need to do everything to make sure that we have a proper vetting of everything dealing with the spectrum before barack obama gives this administered -- and this administration cares political favors to his contributors. host: when we talked with mr. sanjiv ahuja, he talked about the vetting process. guest: the process that is really relevant is 2003 and 2005

process. 2010 was -- the change of control was a very long, 7 month long process, ok? i do not know how it could've been longer or more comprehensive. it is as comprehensive a process i have seen any more global and. host: congressman brown? guest: he's wrong. he said they can have filters and they made arrangements for the companies to have filters that supposedly will prevent the interference. but we do not know. those filters have not been developed. how can we know? we need to have that information. so he's written big checks to the obama campaign. the people across the board with lightsquared -- multiple of the

major people with the company had written big checks to the obama campaign. they are trying to force it to the fcc. the fcc has given some preliminary ok's to go ahead. we need to have a proper vetting. we need to find out what the situation is. the spectrum was not designed for a land-based broadband. there are other companies, also. this administration is picking winners and losers. the winners are the people that write big checks the obama campaign. this is not right. this is another one of those cases where the obama administration is trying to force the american people to accept something to give tremendous profits to the obama's political supporters. host: so you are not seen promise in the technology? guest: we don't know.

that is the thing about it. there is tremendous potential. everything we can hear, there is tremendous potential that lightsquared's ground-based broadband is going to interfere with high precision gps. if it can be prevented, fine. but the administration should not be picking winners and losers. certainly, they should not be trying to force things through the fcc and through the regulatory bodies. just like -- we're getting daily information about how there were many warning signs down the road through the bush administration. the bush administration refused to give them the loans. the obama administration pushed it through. why? there were big supporters. it is the same thing happening here. the fcc, a big bundler for the

administration is taking care of its buddies. the military and commercial interests could be harms. lightsquared is saying that all of us. i'm a pilot. i've got an aviation gps. lightsquared is saying i need to spend extra money, anybody an aviation. they will give $50 million to the government for filters, but the experts tell us that the filters were cost billions of dollars. $50 million will not scratch it. we have to slow the process down. it has to be defended. we need transparency from the administration and we need to have the requests granted and give us the information we need in our committee so we can look into this and understand what is going on before this administration, before the fcc ok's lightsquared going ahead with their ground-based broadband.

host: in a letter to john holdrun, company director of the office of science and technology policy, you ask for some documents. what you ask for? all the republicans on your committee signed off on this but no democrats. guest: that's right. we asked for a lot of documents, e-mails, scientific and documents, anything we could get, but they stonewalled. we could not get information from noaa, or any information from the department of homeland security, information from the administration. they are withholding it. we have the responsibility in making sure that taxpayers dollars are spent wisely and that taxpayers will not be harmed. business interests and jobs will not be harmed by what this administration is doing. but they are stonewalling. at the same time, they're trying

to force through the ok for lightsquared to be able to put in place there ground-based broadband system. it's not right. just asking the administration to produce what we need it to be able to vet this. the fcc to stop this information so that we can get the information and go for it in a transparent way. and what the ramifications of this system that lightsquared wants in place. host: if you do not get the information, what happens next? guest: we'll use every tool we have. host: including subpoenas? guest: if we have to. absolutely. we have that power. if we need to, absolutely we will do that. we have to get this information and it's timely that we do it.

if we do not hear anything but october 7, we will knock on the door again very strong . host: rep paul broun is chairman on the subcommittee on investigations. he is a third term republican from georgia and. he happens to be a medical doctor and an airline pilot. civilian pilots. guest: the issue is gps and i am concerned about that. i'm concerned about the housewives that have a garden gps, try to find out where to go pick up their baby sitter. lightsquared very possibly, in fact probably could interfere with her gps. we cannot have that happen. host: up next, we talked to gps manufacturers. now on your screen is jim kirkland, vice president and

general counsel of trimbel navigation. he joins "the communicators" from mountain view, california. what is trimbel navigation what is the coalition to save our gps? guest: trimbel navigation is the leading manufacturer for gps equipment for commercial and industrial use. we focus on high and industrial applications like agriculture, construction, service. the coalition to save our gps was founded after an initial fcc decision granted a waiver to lightsquared to proceed with its buildup of its network. and we are, the commission is to educate policymakers on the gps industry and the implications of that proposal. we have been very active on that. host: jim kirkland, last week on "the communicators" we talk to

the chairman and ceo of lightsquared, and he told us he understood the concerns and what they have done is they have moved their spectrum uses as far away as possible with in their spectrum from gps units to mitigate the danger. guest: sure. so the issue here is that the technical evidence so far in front of the fcc still shows interference even from modified plan. that interferes with planes trying to land safely, managing the distance for our troops stateside, farmers using precision agriculture. and the gps industry is committed to following to the process and trying to figure of, there is a technical solution. so far no technical solution has been proven to the satisfaction of the fcc. host: guestso is it the technoly

that troubles you or were the spectrum is located? guest: the interference can arise from a couple things. one way to manage interference is by geographic separation. for example, you do not have two tv stations operating on the same frequency. they are separated by geographic area and that helps manage interference. the other way you do with interference is by keeping dissimilar uses pretty far apart. so right now all the wireless networks that operate at high powered like lightsquared is proposing are very much further away from the gps band then were lightsquared is proposing to use satellite spectrum to provide terrestrial. it is really a very difficult interference and engineering problem, because you have no geographic separation. a gps receiver could be right next door to of lightsquared broadcasting tower. and you have no separation in the frequency band.

so these transmissions are extremely close to the gps a band. the combination of those two things presents serious interference and it makes it very difficult an engineering problem to solve. host: is it not solvable? guest: there has been progress made two proposals. lightsquared has changed the proposals multiple times over the last seven months. as they change the proposal to move further away from the spectrum band and decrease the power, they reduce the level of interference, but no one has been able to conclude that the limited for critical uses like aviation, national-security, precision agriculture. that is what the fcc has an ongoing study process determined. we are fully participated in the process. we are committed to work through the process and seeing if there is a solution. the solution needs to be very

strongly demonstrated before you take risks on things like aviation safety. host: there been issues raised whether or not the fcc and noaa, etc, are fully vetting lightsquared as they should. do you have those same concerns? guest: not currently. the fcc and the ntaa have unified saying there are more studies to determine this. the right answer here is to complete the process and see if there are in fact solutions. so far the technical evidence does not support that, but we are willing to keep working on that. host: jim kirkland, last week in our interview with sanjiv ahuja of lightsquared, he talked about the length of the process. here is what he had to say about and we would like to get your response. guest: since 2001, 2002, 2003,

2005, some of these commercial device manufacturers, all of them have been aware that there is going to be a terrestrial network in the spectrum. if i am buying a product that the manufacture of the product, if i've looked at it from my personal vantage point, the manufacture of the product knew very well that there is a potential network coming in the neighborhood of that, because it has been allocated. fcc has specifically specify the specifications of how that network look like. i would make sure that -- 400 plus million of those devices work fine. host: jim kirkland? guest: so, there is a lot packed in there. i think i will start with what he said last. he says that 400 million devices

work fine. that is what the fcc is said has not been proven and requires more study. that remains to be seen. as far as what the fcc approved in the past, if you look at the orders, the spectrum they are proposing to use is mobile satellite spectrum. so it was allocated to a low transmissions from a satellite for mobile communications purposes. and in 2001 and 2003, what the fcc allowed was what they called ancillary terrestrial service. and the point of that was to fill in holes in the satellite footprint. in urban areas, there were the urban canyons where the satellite signals might be blocked by tall buildings. ordere fcc said, in to improve the mobile satellite service, we will allow them to build fillin transmitters to

supplement the satellite service. that was clear. that gps industry had a good working relationship with lightsquared's predecessors. this is new owners. but so long as everyone understood that that is what the trust operations were four, the gps industry, government agencies, everyone was fine. what is happened in november, 2010 is lightsquared said, we want to provide terrestrial only broadband service and we want to build a nationwide broadband network with 40,000 high powered transmitters throughout the u.s. that is not what the commission authorized. so gps manufacturers were not going to design their products contemplating something that simply was not authorized. and i think that is the key point, because once you understand what the fcc authorized, you also see where the interference problem comes

from, because it is much more geographically ubiquitous, much higher power, tried to cover 92% of the population. host: do you think lightsquared's concept needs to be jumped? guest: not at all. what we need to do is to demonstrate what power levels they can operate at, what spectrum they can operate at, and it may be that the limits on that, on their proposal need to be much stricter than what they offered. that has spent a lot of the issues so far is how can they operate without interference to gps? if that is proven, then everyone in the government and the gps industry will be happy to cooperate. host: jim kirkland is the vice president and general counsel of trimbel navigation.

saveourgps.org is the website. up next, a political discussion about the issues surrounding lightsquared. now joining us on "the communicators" is fred schulte. he's with iwatch news, and he is also with the center for public integrity. why has cpi been writing a series of articles about lightsquared and its white house connections? guest: my colleagues and i have been writing about 2008 obama presidential campaign. those of the donors that put together a large groups of donations of $50,000 or more, maybe even up to $500,000. we are looking at what they got and did they get anything for their money or were they getting jobs or access to the white house, were they getting contracts and that sort of thing? we have written a number of stories about a number of

different companies that have been swept up in this political question. host: and what did you find with regard to lightsquared? guest: lightsquared, we originally wrote about them in connection with the donald gives you was the investor and the company at the time -- donald gibbs who was the investor and the company at the time that it applied to get a waiver. president obama planted one of the investors to head the fcc. there was immediately a controversy when lightsquared came before them as to whether there was politics at play. host: is it illegal to work with people that are friendly to your campaign? guest: no. not illegal at all. one of the bedrocks of our coverage of this issue had been around the premise that when barack obama announced his candidacy as presidential candidate, one of the things he said was that he was going to

drain the swamp and end business as usual in washington. and not let lobbyists have the run of the place and do these kinds of things. and so we thought that, well, given what we do, we ought to look at what has in fact happened with regard to major donors. host: did you find anything questionable and e-mails between the white house and lightsquared? guest: when we filed a freedom of information request and got back from the white house a number of e-mails and a number of other records, and we learned -- we were surprised by the tone of the e-mails. some of them were very chatty and friendly, but the thing that caught our eye was that representatives of lightsquared had said that their ceo was coming into town and wanted to have a meeting with them. he was going to be in town

because he was going to be participating in a fund raiser with the president. on that same day, he did in fact give $30,000 in contributions. the way that was slowly or not too subtle it linked did raise questions. host: last week, we interviewed sanjiv ahuja the chairman and ceo of lightsquared, and ceceli a kong asked him specifically about the e-mails. >> guest: how you respond to these questions from the center for public integrity that e- mails were exchanged between white house officials and lightsquared officials to get meetings with white house personnel at the time when you are donating to the campaign, company officials were? guest: cecilia, when you're

building a significant network, and when you are making a significant technology investment in the country, and you look at whether they are telecom operators, technology companies, the ceo's of all of these companies meeting with various government officials, our business is in 30 countries. we go meet with different government officials all the time. host: mr. fred schulte, what did you hear in that answer? guest: what did he say? he did not say anything about the campaign contributions. he seems to be saying that this is business as usual. we do not have a position on that one way or the other. we started covering these kinds of issues because the candidate who became president of united states made an issue out of

access to people with a lot of money, --people with a lot of money getting access to grants. he said that was not going to happen in his administration. there is nothing illegal about giving a campaign contribution and may in fact be business as usual, but we cover the relationship between money and politics. he seemed to acknowledge that there is one. host: so, what would you like to see done, with the information you put on your web site? the best place to find that would be iwatchnews.org. should lightsquared be prohibited from being allowed to build its network because of its connections to the white house? guest: i honestly have no opinion on that. i mean, i think there are some

people that have some serious issues with lightsquared. the center for public integrity. we are just covering the relationship between money and politics. host: did you find there were investors from the obama administration or campaign network in, that had invested in lightsquared's predecessor? what did you find? guest: yes. senator obama himself at one time had an investment and. it is a company that had a lot of people tied to the administration in one way or another as investors or supporters. then again, in defense of them, they believe and what they are doing here. so sometimes you invest in things that you believe in. and sometimes there is a political angle. host: william continue to write about lightsquared as events unfold? is there something else you're writing about? guest: we do not usually discuss wh