LightSquared, seen by some as a wireless ally for the cable industry, has received new life via $850 million in financing to be used for "general corporate purposes which include constructing its world class, 4G-LTE wholesale network," the company said in a news release.
The funding "endorses our overall business model while providing LightSquared with a solid step forward to execute our strategy," Sanjiv Ahuja, LightSquared's chairman-CEO said in the news release. LightSquared could provide cable with an alternate or even separate source of wireless spectrum if things ever go sour with its Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) partnership.
In less positive wireless news, Alvarion could be in danger of losing a $100-$150 million five-year WiMAX hardware and services deal with Open Range Communications. Open Range's goal is to deliver Internet to rural regions within the U.S. using broadband frequencies from satellite-based provider GlobalStar. Those frequencies, though, are enmeshed in an FCC dispute which threatens to close them off, leaving Open Range looking for alternate communications channels.
On the plus side, Alvarion has been fully paid for all equipment it's thus far supplied and Open Range has federal funding of $267 million as well as a $100 million investment from JPMorgan Chase. On the negative side, if GlobalStar can't comply with FCC regulations, Alvarion's future orders may be canceled.
For more:
- see this news release
- and this story
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