Gps Equipment Sales

Deere fights for GPS bandwidth

Deere & Co. has banded with a number of industries, all of which rely on the nation’s GPS system, to oppose a wireless venture’s plans for a new network that Deere says jeopardizes use of GPS in agriculture and construction equipment.

The Coalition to Save Our GPS, a working group formed to evaluate the proposal by LightSquared Inc., released a study Wednesday that indicates the proposed wireless broadband and satellite network could have a $96 billion negative impact on the U.S. economy.

The industry stakeholders, including numerous aviation groups, have said LightSquared’s high-powered broadband signal will leak into the frequencies allocated to GPS and cause severe interference hindering millions of GPS receivers. It could affect federal, state and local governments, first responders, airlines, mariners, construction, agriculture and everyday consumers, the coalition reports.

“It is not acceptable to allow interference to these important industries when there is no practical solution to mitigate the problem of interference,” said Barry Schaffter, Deere’s senior vice president and chief information officer.

LightSquared’s proposal, which must receive approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, calls for serving mobile-Web users over a network of 40,000 ground stations. It also proposes repurposing a portion of the satellite spectrum that has been reserved for GPS.

The FCC has ordered Reston, Va.-based LightSquared to deliver a report on interference by July 1. But  LightSquared announced this week that it has addressed the problem of interference with GPS receivers and will use different airways of the spectrum band, located further away from the GPS frequencies.

“This is a solution which ensures that tens of millions of GPS users won’t be affected by LightSquared’s launch,” Sanjiv Ahuja, LightSquared chairman and chief executive officer.

But Deere spokesman Ken Golden said Wednesday the LightSquared’s revised plan still does not address the interference with agricultural and construction equipment. “The technical solutions are not there yet,” he said.

Schaffter said Deere customers depend on GPS to deliver increased productivity, lower overall costs and reduce their operation’s environmental impact. “Degradation of GPS signals could significantly erode the strong competitive position of U.S. farmers in the global agriculture economy,” he said.

The Economics of Disruption: $96 Billion Annually at Risk | GPS World

 “ The Economic Benefits of Commercial GPS Use in the United States and the Costs of Potential Disruption ” was presented by Nam D. Pham, Ph.D., of NDP Consulting, during a June 21 webinar sponsored by the Coalition to Save Our GPS.

The author stated that his study concentrated on GPS use in precision agriculture, construction, and surveying. It explicitly does not encompass GPS use in aviation, nor in the consumer sector, nor in timing or financial infrastructure.

The report states: “The direct economic benefits of GPS technology on commercial GPS users are estimated to be over $67.6 billion per year in the United States. In addition, GPS technology creates direct and indirect positive spillover effects, such as emission reductions from fuel savings, health and safety gains in the work place, time savings, job creation, higher tax revenues, and improved public safety and national defense. Today, there are more than 3.3 million jobs that rely on GPS technology, including approximately 130,000 jobs in GPS manufacturing industries and 3.2 million in the downstream commercial GPS-intensive industries. The commercial GPS adoption rate is growing and expected to continue growing across industries as high financial returns have been demonstrated. Consequently, GPS technology will create $122.4 billion benefits per year and will directly affect more than 5.8 million jobs in the downstream commercial GPS-intensive industries when penetration of GPS technology reaches 100 percent.

Further, “the GPS industry directly creates jobs and economic activities, which spur economic growth. Evidence shows that innovative industries, such as the GPS industry, create both high- and low-skilled jobs during economic expansions and downturns, pay their employees higher-than-national-average wages, raise output and sales per employee, increase U.S. competitiveness, which is reflected in increased exports and reduced U.S. trade deficits, and spend large sums on R&D and capital investment. In addition to creating these direct economic benefits, innovative industries create productivity benefits to the downstream industries, including increased sales, profits, and investment returns. Empirical studies have shown sustained productivity benefits support further growth and job creation in downstream industries and the U.S. economy as a whole.

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