Globalstar Announces 3GPP Approval of Band 53 for 2.4 GHz Terrestrial Spectrum

December 17, 2018

Globalstar, Inc. announced that the Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) has approved a global standard for terrestrial use of Globalstar’s spectrum at 2483.5-2495 MHz.

3GPP has designated Globalstar’s terrestrial S-band as Band 53, which now permits LTE services in the U.S. with additional geographies expected to be added in 2019.

The approval provides for Time Division Duplex (“TDD”) services in Band 53 as a standalone band and allows Globalstar’s spectrum to serve as an anchor channel for carrier aggregation and LAA next year. The physical properties of the 2.4 GHz band enable high capacity indoor and outdoor applications benefiting from intensive levels of spectral reuse without the need for macro cellular coordination. Band 53 can now be integrated into user equipment and cellular infrastructure.

Uniquely, Band 53 provides a single coast-to-coast contiguous license in the U.S., and the growing number of international terrestrial approvals provide harmonization opportunities globally.

Jay Monroe, Executive Chairman of Globalstar, commented, “3GPP standardization represents an important milestone in the Company’s spectrum efforts. We appreciate the industry’s support of our band and the many parties who participated in its technical development leading to approval. This process is the culmination of intensive standards work and we highly value our technical team who drove this to completion on an accelerated schedule.”

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