US terrestrial/satellite venture LightSquared reportedly plans to use local mobile operator Sprint Nextel’s equipment and cell sites to accelerate the deployment of its ground infrastructure.
The venture, which secured a US$586m loan earlier this week…
US terrestrial/satellite venture LightSquared reportedly plans to use local mobile operator Sprint Nextel’s equipment and cell sites to accelerate the deployment of its ground infrastructure.
The venture, which secured a US$586m loan earlier this week via UBS and JPMorgan to support its terrestrial roll-out, is in talks to utilise extra capacity on Sprint’s network, reported Bloomberg citing sources.
This extra capacity will become available as part of Sprint’s plans to invest US$5bn in infrastructure upgrades.
Such a move is likely to increase pressure on LightSquared’s US WiMAX wholesale rival Clearwire, which currently sees Sprint as a majority shareholder and customer for 4G capacity.
Clearwire is also seeking additional funding for significant network expansion in the near term.
The partnership rumours come hot on the heels of LightSquared’s announcement on 22 February that it had secured more than US$2bn in debt and equity over the last seven months with a US$586m loan.
“Our investors share our belief that now is the time for a wholesale model to succeed, as we will bring desperately-needed 4G capacity to businesses, consumers, government and public safety users through a wide variety of retail partners which will sell services based on our integrated terrestrial and satellite network,” said CEO Sanjiv Ahuja.
Speaking to SatelliteFinance on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 16 February, CMO Frank Boulben revealed the venture plans to accelerate its terrestrial deployment by more than a year.
This could mean the group’s network, which is being built by European vendor NSN, will be able to cover 260 million people in the US by 2014.
As part of conditions tied to the venture’s ATC licence, it must be capable of covering at least 100 million people in the US by 31 December 2012, at least 145 million people by the end of December the following year, and at least 260 million people by 31 December 2015.
Boulben also confirmed wholesale agreements with five customers: two carriers, a device manufacturer, a national retailer and a website.
However, GPS interference concerns continue to plague the venture. US satellite navigation systems manufacturer Garmin International has warned that LightSquared’s network could result in so-called GPS dead zones.
Mobile satellite operator Inmarsat and some Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, have also expressed similar concerns.
These issues were officially raised to the FCC by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on 12 January, prompting LightSquared to commit up to US$20m to research ways to remove any potential problem.
Boulben said he was “confidently positive” the interference concerns will be addressed satisfactorily. He added that LightSquared wants to get this right as most of its customers will use GPS capable devices and that the company is engaged in active cooperation with all parties involved and is reporting to the FCC on a monthly basis.
