If you’ve been following the LightSquared-vs.-GPS-Industry saga, you might be ready for the whole thing to end. Put a fork in it already and get on with something else.

That’s very tempting. A headline earlier this month said the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (heretofore referred to as “PNT EXCOM,” stretch as that might be for an acronym) determined that “there appears 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 significant interference with GPS.” Finally, a “final-sounding” statement. It looked as if someone had put the brakes on it once and for all. If nine government agencies, including the FAA, are saying this isn’t going to work, you need to go to Plan B.

The problem was, LightSquared said those tests that showed no “practical solutions” were based on faulty and rigged testing. The GPS industry folks are in cahoots with the government, if you believe LightSquared. Why? According to LightSquared, it has to do with several things, but up near the top is the GPS industry’s desire to continue using spectrum that is really in LightSquared’s domain. That’s right – the GPS receivers are using spectrum designated for LightSquared and they’re getting a free ride to boot. (Oh, and LightSquared wants to remind you that thanks to all the smartphones in use today, the personal navigational device market – where the GPS industry historically made a lot of money – isn’t what it used to be. Just keep that in mind.)

As for where LightSquared fits in, the company’s Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy Jeff Carlisle uses an analogy to mining. If you get a license to mine on federal property, spend millions building the mine and getting ready to extract minerals, then you’re told that you can no longer proceed with your operations? Not a good way of doing business, Mr./Mrs./Ms. Government.

What about that government-mandated space that is supposed to serve as a buffer between spectrum users? Oh yeah, the “guard bands.” Apparently, they’re not working here or somehow got dropped. Not sure what happened there.

Somewhat related to that “buffer” zone and often overlooked or dismissed outright is LightSquared’s offer to move farther away from GPS, to the other side of its designated spectrum, so it’s no longer interfering with about 99.75 percent of GPS devices. That last quarter of 1 percent of devices? Carlisle says that does not include aviation, so anyone who wants to say that “99 percent” non-interference is not good enough when you’re talking about airplanes, well, that doesn’t really fly. Yet that’s exactly the type of thing people remember from last year’s hearings on the matter.  

The horse has left the barn. Once you put the fear into people’s minds that somehow LightSquared’s network is going to interfere with aviation or anything that even remotely has to do with “life and death” – which is exactly what the GPS industry has been doing – you’re done. So why are we still talking about this?

LightSquared keeps trying. Immediately after that PNT EXCOM report, the company called on the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to re-evaluate the government/GPS industry tests and conduct another round of tests on high-precision devices at an independent laboratory.

There’s a lot of finger-pointing and worse going on, and it’s impossible to know, without a thorough investigation, everything that has gone down. In what’s possibly the oddest turn of recent events, Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley made allegations  of some kind of bride involving LightSquared and a potential call center (which LightSquared wouldn’t need under its business model) in Iowa. Odd, all of it. It’s very reminiscent of the first iteration of Nextwave Wireless, whose license predicament finally was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

LightSquared’s investment by hedge fund manager Philip Falcone is well documented and frequently cited (just say “hedge fund” and see how people react). But LightSquared’s history is hardly fly by night. Remember ARDIS, Motient, SkyTerra? They’re all part of its history, and LightSquared’s chairman and CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, is a well-respected executive who spent several years as CEO of Orange. How do you explain how LightSquared got from A to B?

An earlier iteration of the company, American Mobile Satellite Corp. (AMSC), was awarded spectrum back in 1989, before the spectrum auctions, so it didn’t actually pay for it. Yet the company did go on to create a satellite business and invested a lot of money in the proposed LightSquared terrestrial network. So if it can’t use the spectrum it was awarded for LTE, does it deserve some compensation?

I am not always the first to suggest public hearings be held in Washington, D.C., but in this case, it seems justified. Last week, Rep. Greg Walden, (R-Ore.), leader of the House Subcommittee on Communications & Technology, said the subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine the FCC’s handling of LightSquared’s proposed service. Walden told reporters last week  that he’s “trying to figure out how the cart got so far ahead of the horse,” i.e., why did the company get spectrum only to be told later on that there are interference issues?

So far, I haven’t found a date certain for such a hearing, but it’s a good idea. If the government can’t figure out how this mess happened, it’s more than a little directionally challenged.