The Lightsquared Predicament

Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

The Lightsquared Predicament

Lightsquared is facing numerous obstacles on its way to launching a nationwide (*cough*cough*) 4G network with its spectrum.

One obstacle: MONEY!  Sprint gave them until next month to start or lose the Sprint investment (which Sprint needs to continue to fund Clearwire).

2nd obstacle: GPS! Studies show that the spectrum - which abuts the GPS spectrum - interferes with GPS about 70% of the time.

3rd obstacle: Congress. A new Defense bill in Congress will make it harder for Lightsquared to use the spectrum. The bill requires the FCC to wait until all issues with interference are cleared up. That could take a while - if ever, since no one checks power output on radio transmissions.

IMO, it's unlikely Lightsquared will ever get this off the ground, which means that the spectrum that DISH owns will become significant. It also means that if Clearwire can get its act together, it could become the go-to 4G supplier for a lot of companies - like T-Mobile, Sprint, Leap, Cricket, US Cellular, etc.


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