The race for 4G domination in the US is set to heat up as LightSquared, a venture backed by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners aggressively enters the fray with its LTE build-out.
Bloomberg reports that LightSquared would be going head-to-head with…
The race for 4G domination in the US is set to heat up as LightSquared, a venture backed by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners aggressively enters the fray with its LTE build-out.
Bloomberg reports that LightSquared would be going head-to-head with Sprint Nextel’s Clearwire, which is based on rival WiMax technology in the key markets of Dallas, Chicago and Minneapolis in 2011 and then New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2012.
However a Light Squared spokesperson refuted these claims saying: “First, we are not taking on Clearwire directly – we aren’t selling to end users, but distributing to carriers and retailers.”
He continued: “Second, our technology is based on 4G LTE with satellite overlay, whereas Clearwire is offering a WiMax solution.”
The spokesperson said that LightSquared would be first building its system in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver. There are plans to expand to other markets, but the company is not willing to discuss where it will be building out next, suffice to say that it is committed to covering 92% of the population of the US by 2015.
“We can sell to whichever third parties we want, including Sprint Nextel. The only limit we have is that we are not allowed to sell more than 25% of our capacity to the two largest telecom incumbents in the market at present.”
LightSquared was formed through Harbinger’s acquisition of SkyTerra Communications and plans to sell capacity on its network to cable providers, consumer electronics companies and technology companies.
LightSquared, based in Reston, Virginia, had expected this year to add 300 base stations, which handle network traffic, and about 5,000 by the end of 2011.
