Federal Communications Commission  FCC 08-254
STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER DEBORAH TAYLOR TATE
Re:  Globalstar Licensee LLC Applications for Modification of License for Operation 
of Ancillary Terrestrial Component Facilities, Order and Authorization
This item provides a Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) licensee a temporary waiver 
of certain Commission rules related to ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) operations.  
In so doing, we allow the licensee, Globalstar, in partnership with its lessee, Open Range 
Communications, to proceed with a $267 million loan commitment by the Department of 
Agriculture’s Rural Development Utilities Program.  This loan commitment will support 
the deployment of broadband service in rural areas.  Specifically, Globalstar and Open 
Range plan to provide broadband service to several small towns in rural America starting 
next year, rapidly expanding their coverage to include 546 communities by 2013.  
I recognize that ancillary terrestrial component service is designed to be – and I 
believe that it should be – ancillary to the core business of satellite providers, which is the 
provision of service via satellites. I support this waiver because, first, it is temporary in 
nature and imposes a strict set of conditions for noncompliance, and second, because it 
offers the potential to promote much-needed broadband service in rural America.  With 
regard to the conditions, the order requires updated handsets and satellites within strict 
time frames – in effect, requiring the provision of satellite service as intended by 
Commission rules.  It also is important to note that the Rural Development Utilities 
Program has provided a loan commitment, not a subsidy, which means Globalstar and 
Open Range must repay their debts.  Most importantly, this conditioned and time-limited 
waiver helps the Commission advance one of our most crucial and also most challenging 
public policy goals: the deployment of broadband, especially for rural Americans.