Telecom Lead America: Sprint is terminating the spectrum
hosting agreement it signed with LightSquared in June 2011.
Sprint has been and continues to be supportive of
LightSquared’s business plans and appreciates the company’s efforts to find a
resolution to the interference issues impacting its ability to offer service on
the 1.6 GHz spectrum. However, due to these unresolved issues, and subject to
the provisions of the agreement, Sprint has elected to exercise its right to
terminate the agreement announced last summer, according to a company
statement.
The company added that they are open to considering future
spectrum hosting agreements with LightSquared, should they resolve these
interference issues, as well as other interested spectrum holders.
As per the terms of the agreement, Sprint has returned $65
million in prepayments LightSquared made to cover costs that were not ultimately
incurred by Sprint.
According to the agreement, Sprint agreed to deploy and
operate an LTE network capable of utilizing the 1.6 GHz spectrum licensed to or
available to LightSquared.
The agreement contained contingencies related to possible
interference issues with LightSquared’s spectrum, including Sprint’s right to
terminate the agreement if certain conditions were not met by LightSquared.
Sprint said that termination of the agreement will have no
impact on Sprint’s current customers and is not material to Sprint’s ongoing
business operations. Network Vision remains on schedule and on budget, and we
look forward to begin launching our 4G LTE network mid-year.
Recently, Sprint,
Clearwire and Comcast announced a significant expansion of the Clearwire 4G
network footprint and key capacity upgrades for mobile broadband customers in
the greater Pittsburgh metro area.
editor@telecomlead.com
