Extension Granted To Finalize A 15-Year Agreement Between The Two Companies

That sense of urgency that came through in the latest filing by LightSquared with the FCC asking that it expedite approval of plan to build a 4G wireless data network may stem at least in part from a deadline imposed by Sprint Nextel Corp, which had agreed to share network expansion and equipment costs over the next 15 years.

But the deal was predicated on the FCC granting LightSquared permission to use the spectrum, and the original deadline on the agreement was December 31st. With that date now past, Dow Jones Newswires reports that Sprint has granted a 30 day extension for LightSquared to get the required approvals so that construction of the broadband infrastructure can get underway.

In it's filing, LightSquared asked the FCC to rule that the interference issue with existing GPS receivers was entirely the responsibility of the GPS industry, which LightSquared said had sold non-compliant receivers to the public. The company has come under fire from Congress and the Defense Department as well as the industry for planning to build a system that would render millions of deployed devices crippled or useless without retrofit filters.

LightSquared says that the strategic alliance with Spring will save the company $13 billion over the next 8 years, but that it will still need to identify an additional $3.5 billion in funding to realize a positive cash flow by 2014.

FMI: www.lightsquared.com, www.sprint.com, www.fcc.gov