Embattled US satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared has defaulted on a US$56.25m payment to British MSS operator Inmarsat, which had been part of the spectrum leasing agreement between the companies.
Inmarsat said in a statement that it today issued…
Embattled US satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared has defaulted on a US$56.25m payment to British MSS operator Inmarsat, which had been part of the spectrum leasing agreement between the companies.
Inmarsat said in a statement that it today issued a notice of default to LightSquared. The company now has 60 calendar days to make the payment.
The US$56.25m payment marks the end of the first phase of the agreement, which involved LightSquared making a total payment of US$337.5m in multiple instalments since 2010.
If the US$56.25m payment is not made, Inmarsat said that it would be entitled to “enforce its rights and remedies under the agreement, including pre-agreed spectrum arrangements and termination of certain LightSquared rights under the Cooperation Agreement”.
The companies have started discussions on the future of the agreement, but Inmarsat remained cautious about the chances of success of the talks.
LightSquared said in reply to Inmarsat’s announcement that it had raised several matters that needed to be resolved before the first phase came to an end.
“The terms of the agreement allow for additional time to resolve pending questions before phase one is complete and the final payment is due,” the company said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Inmarsat agreed to lease spectrum to LightSquared.
LightSquared’s hopes of building a wireless broadband network in the US using satellite and terrestrial technology were hit last week when US regulators rejected its plans.
LightSquared owns 59MHz of nationwide ubiquitous spectrum in the US, which includes 40MHz of L Band spectrum for LTE, 6MHz of L Band spectrum for satellite usage and 13MHz of additional spectrum resources.
The spectrum leased by Inmarsat was 10MHz in the lower end of the L Band.
