A radio war is brewing between two large commercial interests – cell phone carriers and the GPS industry – and at the crux of the clash is a radio spectrum ever more crammed by signals zipping to and from mobile gadgets.In the continuing quest to increase wireless broadband for cell phones, laptops and tablets, cell carriers have come up with a new technology combination that adds a satellite — in contrast to using cell phone towers only — to give users almost unlimited wireless coverage. But that new technology competes against satellite-guided navigation for GPS devices, which could be crowded out as new signals move in. Cell phones currently connect over radio signals from cell towers, but when these devices fall out of range of the signal, some companies want to run them on a radio channel. This channel rests right next to, and could potentially seep into, the wavelengths used for GPS directions. The frequency range ends at 1559 megahertz — right where the GPS band starts. L-band 1, as it’s referred to by engineers and regulators, was set aside for satellite communications.Read more from Kansas City Star.
Bandwidth Battle Brews between Cell Phones, GPS
