The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Tuesday that LightSquared 's proposed Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will interfere with GPS services. Reston, Va.-based LightSquared strongly protested the agency's conclusion late on Tuesday afternoon.

"NTIA relies on interference standards that have never been used in this context and were forced by the GPS community in order to reach the conclusions presented today," LightSquared said in a statement. "This, together with a severely flawed testing process that relied on obsolete and niche devices, shows that the FCC should take the NTIA's recommendation with a generous helping of salt," the company continued.

The NTIA had testing done on GPS receivers in regard to LightSquared's proposed network back in November. LightSquared has already decried those results as "flawed" because the tests used "obsolete" devices.

Why this matters
The FCC had been waiting on the NTIA recommendation. The judgment -- while not unexpected -- is another black mark against LightSquared's chances of ever launching its LTE network.

For more LightSquared's GPS saga has been extensively covered by Light Reading Mobile during the past year:

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile