LightSquared says it will launch in 2012, reportedly close to deal with Sprint

Despite discouraging evidence that its hybrid terrestrial/satellite wireless network interferes with some GPS devices, LightSquared has reiterated that it will launch in 2012 as planned.

The wireless provider has promised the FCC that its service will be available to 100 million people by the end of 2012. The GPS stuff, Sanji Ahuja, LightSquared's CEO says, is just an effort by jealous outsiders to stifle innovation and not a major impediment in the wireless service's launch.

"The development of this new network is being frustrated by interests trying to close the door of innovation behind themselves," Ahuja blogged.

LightSquared expects to show how it will fix the GPS problems when the test results are presented to the FCC on June 15.

Elsewhere in the LightSquared orbit, Reuters is reporting that the wireless provider is close to signing an eight-year, $2 billion deal to rent space on Sprint's (NYSE: S) wireless network.

For more:
- Financial Times has this story (sub. req.)
- Mobile Burn has this story

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