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GPS interference alters LightSquared network plans
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GPS interference alters LightSquared network plans
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Sanjiv Ahuja, Chariman and CEO of LightSquared delivers his keynote address at the International CTIA wireless industry conference in Orlando, Florida March 23, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Scott Audette
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK |
Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:38pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - LightSquared, a telecom start-up backed by Philip Falcone's hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, is dramatically changing its plans to build a high-speed wireless network to avoid interference problems with GPS services.
LightSquared said on Monday that it would use a different block of wireless airwaves than it had originally planned to use for its network to resolve GPS interference problems that arose during months of testing.
The company, which still needs billions of dollars in additional funding to build its network, said the new spectrum band is "largely free" of interference issues. Services as diverse as car navigation and defense systems depend on GPS.
The setback could complicate Falcone's efforts to raise new money, according to analysts who also say the change may lead to a big delay for its service launch. Falcone had said he may take LightSquared public to raise funds as early as this year.
To date Harbinger has sunk about $3.1 billion into LightSquared -- making the hedge fund the company's single-largest equity investor. The telecom venture also has sold over a $1 billion in short-term debt.
"It is very hard to see how you justify an equity value for this business (in line with) what Harbinger has invested," unless it can show it will be able to use all the spectrum it owns within two or three years time, Tim Farrar, an independent satellite industry analyst said.
Under the revised plan LightSquared's CEO Sanjiv Ahuja told Reuters that customers would be able to test its service in early 2012 and launch commercial services by mid 2012.
BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said LightSquared could ill-afford any delays given competitive pressure from well established rivals such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc which already offer high-speed wireless services.
"It's questionable whether the new spectrum will be ready in time to meet that new timeline," said Piecyk who had expected commercial services in early 2012.
Ahuja said the company would try to remedy the GPS interference problems in time to use the original spectrum block in "a couple of years."
GPS service providers including Deere & Co, General Motors and Trimble Navigation had said they were concerned that LightSquared's network as it was originally planned would cause serious interference.
Trimble had argued that the only solution was for LightSquared to use different airwaves.
LightSquared missed a June 15 deadline to file a report with regulators about interference issues and instead asked the Federal Communications Commission for an extension until July 1, which the FCC granted.
Harbinger investors have said they are worried about Falcone's plan to set up a new wireless operator and say he may have gambled too much of their money on its success. The LightSquared investment represents a little over half of Harbinger's assets under management.
Falcone is giving some investors who have asked to get their money out of his fund some non-tradable LightSquared shares instead of cash.
LightSquared has enlisted the help of satellite provider Inmarsat Plc to enable it to prepare the alternative spectrum for use, according to the company.
(Additional reporting by Matthew Goldstein in New York and
Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Maureen Bavdek and Bernard Orr)
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