There is an interesting lawsuit in the U.S Court of Appeals for the case of Ligado Networks, LLC v. United States.  Ligado Networks filed a suit that alleges that the U.S. government unlawfully took its licensed spectrum without due compensation in favor of use by the Department of Defense. The spectrum involved in the suit is L-band spectrum, which sits next to spectrum actively used by DoD for GPS.

The government is arguing in the case that it has the right to take back spectrum when it’s needed for defense purposes. The government is arguing that Ligado doesn’t have a relevant property interest in the spectrum.

For some background, Ligado was granted the spectrum in 2020 by the FCC to use for a satellite-based 5G cellular network. The DoD opposed that license award at the time, and after the FCC awarded the spectrum, the DoD effectively cancelled the Ligado use of the spectrum in opposition to what the FCC had recently ordered. Ligado declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2025, citing the loss of the spectrum that would have been the basis for its business.

Ligado is arguing that what the government is doing is a taking, and that the government could claim any spectrum without compensating the spectrum owner.

USTelecom wrote a brief in the case in support of Ligado Networks. USTelecom argues that its members spend billions of dollars to buy spectrum, and billions more to build networks that use the spectrum. They argue that the government’s actions in this case undermine the ability of carriers to rely on spectrum, which will dampen the willingness to spend a lot of money for spectrum that could be taken away at any time.

The suit should be of interest to WISPs since there is a possibility that the FCC could reclaim CMRS spectrum to meet the Congressional mandate to to find more spectrum for  cellular auctions. The WISP industry has been working hard to protect that spectrum, but this case has to make them nervous.

USTelecom further argues that the government could use the same logic to argue that it could take back rights-of-way or other uses of public lands. In case that sounds far-fetched, the Supreme Court of Georgia recently ruled that local governments can withdraw contracts that granted rights-of-way, by relying on an argument that no contract can last forever, with no end date. The Georgia rights-of-way will likely be renegotiated. But the principle is bad news for telcos, cable companies, electric companies, wireless companies, and the many businesses that rely on maintaining rights-of-way to support long-term infrastructure. The same logic can hold for public lands.

A judge ruled in November that the Ligado suit can continue to examine the issue of whether spectrum licenses are property. This is a suit worth keeping an eye on.