LightSquared wants to launch its 4G-LTE wireless broadband and satellite network as competition for companies like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and it just announced $265 million in additional funding to apply towards that goal. That makes a total of $2.3 billion LightSquared has raised during the past 12 months from investors that include Spectrum Assets and Harbinger Capital Partners, TechCrunch reported.
The company declined to provide further details except to say the funding came from both new and existing investors. LightSquared CEO Philip Falcone, a self-made billionaire investor, controls Harbinger Capital Partners.
LightSquared’s network will be for wholesale only, and it has set a goal of covering 260 million people with universal broadband connectivity by 2016, according to documents filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
Its plans are encountering some technical difficulties, however, due to the possibility that LightSquared network may interfere with GPS systems, as detailed by Bloomberg News. The FCC is currently reviewing these concerns, which LightSquared says it will resolve before launch. Several companies have united to oppose LightSquare in a group called Coalition to Save Our GPS, including FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service Inc., the Air Transport Association, and GPS unit makers Trimble and Garmin.
Related Links:
TechCrunch post: http://tinyurl.com/44stttm
Bloomberg News article: http://tinyurl.com/3juy2se
FCC Order and Authorization DA 11-133 (PDF): http://tinyurl.com/3hdycmd
