Patton Boggs is advocating for a Reston, Va.-based company that is building a national open wireless broadband network, according to lobbying registration paperwork filed with Congress Thursday.
The firm is lobbying for LightSquared Subsidiary LLC on spending bills and other measures that could affect the launch of the network. Patton partners Jeffrey Turner and Nicholas Allard, chairman of the firm's lobbying, political and election law practice, as well as associate Gregory Louer, are handling the account.
The lobbyists couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. A LightSquared spokesman didn’t have an immediate comment.
Patton filed the lobbying registration paperwork a day after the Defense and Transportation departments released a joint statement saying that testing on LightSquared signals showed “harmful interference” with many general purpose Global Positioning System devices and interfered with a flight safety system intended to alert pilots to changing terrain.
LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said in a statement that his company didn’t agree with the government’s findings.
“We continue to believe that LightSquared and GPS can co-exist,” Ahuja said. “And we will continue to work with the federal government on a solution that will allow us to begin investing $14 billion in private money into the infrastructure of America to create jobs, competition and increased access to technology to the nation.”
Lobbyists from 15 firms now are registered to lobby for LightSquared, according to congressional records. They include Ballard Spahr, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Dickstein Shapiro, K&L Gates, Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
LightSquared spent more than $1.5 million on its lobbyists during the first nine months of this year.
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