Sprint likely to bolt from the LightSquared deal next week, get its LTE fix from elsewhere
According to "two people familiar with the matter", Sprint's dedication to the troubled LightSquared project of billionaire Philip Falcone is quickly waning.
The carrier is supposedly ready to announces it will ditch its agreement with the LTE wholesaler as early as next week. Sprint signed an 11-year deal with the venture, provided that LightSquared receives all the necessary regulatory approvals by December.
Witnessing the troubles with GPS systems interference causing the FCC to block the network expansion, Sprint pushed its own deadline until March 15, but is unlikely to do it again.
The deal was supposed to see LightSquared receive 13.5 billion over the course of 11 years of payments and service credits combined, in order to allow Sprint to use its LTE network. Oh, well, it's back to square one and Clearwire for Sprint's LTE now.
Mr Falcone was hoping to become a dumb pipe network wholesaler and rival the largest US carriers, investing $3 billion of its own hedge fund money in LightSquared, so this is just another blow to the already long list of troubles for the venture.
source: Bloomberg
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