Sprint Official Terminates Deal with LightSquared; Returns $65M Initial Payment

[dgstorm]

This story isn't Verizon news, but it involves a third party spectrum company that you guys might be familiar with, so we thought it worth sharing. Things are looking very grim for the spectrum company, Lightsquared. Since they were not able to land FCC approval for their new network because of GPS interference problems, several companies have been dropping them as a client. One of their biggest partners, Sprint is the latest casualty. Sprint just announced that they will be officially terminating their agreement with Ligtsquared. They have even returned $65 Million dollars in initial pre-payments back to Lightsquared.

Despite this huge setback for the company, Lightsquared still may have the possibility of digging their way out of the grave. This report further shares that Lightsquared plans to use these returned funds to mount a legal offensive against the FCC. They have secured legal counsel that is well-versed in fighting government agencies, Theodore Olson and Eugene Scalia. Because of this, Sprint noted that they would be open to future collaborations, if Lightsquared was able to deal with their many problems.

What do you guys think? Obviously, Lightsquared is a sinking ship, but can it be repaired before it is too late?

Source: TechCrunch

 

[kptphalkon]

Is it possible for them to isolate the gps interfering spectrum and just not use it? We'll have to see how it works out...I did read in an earlier article about Lightsquared that the gov't uses spectrum inside their licensed chunk so I guess they do have a case.

 

[skywyze]

So why is it Lightsquared's fault that GPS receivers are listening to frequencies outside their approved spectrum?

 

[VirtualCLD]

So why is it Lightsquared's fault that GPS receivers are listening to frequencies outside their approved spectrum?

It's not, which is the controversy about all of this. However, they are trying to use frequencies in a terrestrial network that were originally reserved for satellite communications only, so some say they got what they asked for.

 

[RETG]

Problem is most people use GPS to find the nearest restaurant, route a trip to the beach, or geocache for some stupid item hidden under a rock. However, there are those who use it for flying an airplane, and some of us use it to find a person lost on a mountain or in the desert. GPS has become an important tool; not just for casual use, but for life saving use by SAR teams.