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Ligado Networks’ plan to establish a terrestrial 5G network could jeopardize some older U.S. Defense Department satellites, according to a congressionally mandated report released Friday. The company is preparing to start operationalizing its system as soon as next month.

The report, released by the National Academies of Sciences with Pentagon sponsorship, noted that satellite services provided to the department by Iridium Communications “will experience harmful interference” when their terminals are within 2,401 feet of Ligado’s terminals, Defense News said.

It also found that satellite systems provided by Iridium competitor Globalstar are “unlikely to experience harmful interference” as a result of the Ligado terrestrial network.

Congress required the report as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act amid concerns from the Defense Department and 13 other federal agencies that Ligado’s 5G network would interfere with GPS, given both systems will operate in the L-band frequency at the range of 1 to 2 GHz.

“The findings from the [National Academies of Sciences] are consistent with the opposition from 14 federal agencies, more than 80 stakeholders and Iridium’s concerns that Ligado’s proposed operations will cause harmful interference,” Jordan Hassin, a spokesman for Iridium, told Defense News.

However, the report found the Ligado 5G network “will not cause most commercially produced general navigation, timing, cellular or certified aviation GPS receivers to experience harmful interference.” That said, it added, certain high-precision receivers sold before 2012 “can be vulnerable to significant harmful interference.”