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LightSquared gets new six-week extension
01 February 2012
Sprint has given LightSquared six more weeks to obtain approval for planned 4G network
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LightSquared
Sprint
4G
LTE
GPS
FCC
Sanjiv Ahuja
Sprint Nextel has agreed to a six week extension to LightSquared to obtain regulatory approval for its proposed 4G network, reports the Wall Street Journal. This new extension follows a previous 30 day extension that was granted to Philip Falcone-owned LightSquared at the end of 2011.
LightSquared hopes to launch a satellite and terrestrial 4G network that covers 260 million people in the US by 2016. However, it has been striving to obtain regulatory clearance after the Federal Communications Commission, along with the US Department of Defense and GPS device makers, expressed concerns that the new signals would block GPS signals and affect other satellite services.
The FCC is accepting public comments until February 27 over the company’s claims that GPS device making companies are not entitled to legal protection from signal interference, reported the WSJ. Meanwhile LightSquared has already offered to reduce the power of its signals and to employ only part of its spectrum. In a 2011 interview with Global Telecoms Business, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said that older GPS devices looked outside the official GPS spectrum at frequencies now allocated to LightSquared.
Sprint had earlier said that it has put its network sharing deal on hold until LightSquared gets FCC clearance. The two companies signed a 15-year partnership deal in July 2011, under which LightSquared could use Sprint’s infrastructure. GTB
Further reading from Global Telecoms Business:
Icahn buys LightSquared debt from bondholders 20 Jan 2012
LightSquared 'may run short of cash' 20 Dec 2011
LightSquared's Sanjiv Ahuja navigates course around GPS ... 10 Aug 2011
LightSquared and Sprint sign LTE deal 29 Jul 2011
LightSquared secures $265m in funding 06 Jul 2011