Lightsquared Archives - Serious Startups

Virginia Startup: LightSquared Says We’re Still Not Dead Yet, Appoints New CEO

Lightsquared, the disgraced Northern Virginia startup that was once trying to deploy a terrestrial 4G/LTE network has appointed Doug Smith as their new CEO and Chairman of the board. LightSquared was once an esteemed satellite communications provider. What went wrong was a story that ran for about a year in the mobile tech media.

LightSquared was working to deploy a 4G/LTE network on bands that were originally used for GPS. There was still fair amounts of GPS traffic on the LightSquared bands and LightSquared was causing interference with those GPS radios. As the company went to work on the 4G/LTE network they were operating on a conditional permit from the FCC which required that they find ways to circumvent the interference caused by LightSquared’s equipment on GPS radios.

In February of this year it was lights out for LightSquared. “NTIA … has now concluded that there is no practical way to mitigate potential interference at this time,” the FCC said in a statement. “Consequently, the commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.”

Through all of this LightSquared had inked partnerships with some of the nation’s wireless carriers. Reports in June of 2011 suggested Sprint had a deal with LightSquared for 15 years and valued at over $20 billion dollars. Leap Wireless, the parent company of Cricket, also had a deal with LightSquared. Luckily the Sprint deal was contingent on FCC approval of LightSquared’s plans.

On February 22, 2012 LightSquared laid off 45% of it’s 330 employee workforce. Earlier in that same week they defaulted on a $56 million dollar payment on a note held by British satellite partner Inmarsat.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week and LightSquared has installed a new CEO and Chairman of the Board.

Smith told theverge.com that LightSquared “remains committed to working with all stakeholders to find an equitable resolution to the regulatory challenges that the company has faced this past year,” and that it “can provide the American public with both a protected and robust GPS system while enabling LightSquared to offer consumers and businesses more choice and a lower priced 4G wireless alternative they need and deserve.”

We’ll have to see how long this life lasts.

Linkage:

Source: TheVerge

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Washington DC Startup: LightSquared Files For Bankruptcy After Botched 4G/LTE Plan

Many of you know the sad story of Lightsquared, a wireless broadband startup located in the suburbs of Washington DC.

LightSquared was an offshoot startup founded by wireless pioneer Philip Falcone. The company had a firm background in satellite communications under two former names, American Mobile Satellite Corporation and Mobile Satellite Ventures.

It was LightSquared’s intention to take frequencies that had been located near bands used for government and military GPS and use them for next generation 4G/LTE services. They had actually carved out a huge deal to be the 4G/LTE provider for Sprint, the nation’s third largest carrier which also has roots in the same DC suburb of Reston Virginia from their NexTel days.

After months and months of testing and appearance after appearance in front of the FCC the FCC finally ruled in February that “there was no practical way to mitigate potential interference at this time.”

The Sprint deal immediately fell apart after that announcement and a large number of LightSquared employees were laid off.

Well one more nail has been put in the LightSquared coffin as the company filed for bankruptcy protection. LightSquared CEO Marc Montanger told the Washington Post that the company hasn’t given up on it’s plan and the bankruptcy protection was to give them some breathing room.

However, at this time they may not have any large scale customers left. Sprint has resorted back to their own 4G/LTE rollout in conjunction with Clearwire for which they own 50% of. T-Mobile has announced their own 4G/LTE strategy which will be funded through their parent company Deutsche Telekom and some of the nearly $4 billion dollars in break up money and considerations from the failed AT&T/T-Mobile merger last year.

source: Washington Post

FCC To Lightsquared: We Need More GPS Testing

A few months back Sprint and Lightsquared announced a $9 billion dollar network hosting deal where Sprint would use Lightsquared’s LTE network to deliver 4G/LTE to their customers, in the same manner in which they use Clearwire’s WiMax service for their current 4G.

One of the caveats in the deal was that LightSquared needed to win over the support of the FCC. The spectrum that LightSquared currently holds interferes with GPS services.
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