Light Reading Mobile – Telecom News, Analysis, Events, and Research
LR Mobile News Analysis  

LightSquared CEO Calls FCC 'Irresponsible'

February 16, 2012 | Dan Jones |

LightSquared's CEO struck back at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s decision this week to block the company's Long Term Evolution (LTE) network plan. (See FCC Moves to Block LightSquared .)

CEO Sanjiv Ahuja released a statement Thursday saying that leaving the GPS interference issue unresolved is "the height of bureaucratic irresponsibility," while stressing that the venture remains committed to finding a solution to the problem:

    After years of receiving regulatory approvals, the FCC approved LightSquared to build its ground network in 2005. In 2010, the FCC amended that plan, requiring LightSquared to build a national broadband network that reached 260 million Americans. At the government’s mandate, LightSquared began investing billions of dollars in America’s infrastructure -- without asking for any money from the American taxpayer. Yesterday, after LightSquared had already spent nearly $4 billion, the FCC changed its mind. There can be no more devastating blow to private industry and confidence in the consistency of the FCC’s decision-making process.

Philip Falcone, head of the Harbinger Capital Partners LP fund that backs LightSquared, meanwhile, is reportedly seeking a spectrum swap so that the operator can try to push its plans forward. Bloomberg is quoting sources that the billionaire is seeking a swap with the defense department.

Why this matters
Despite a seemingly fatal blow to its plans from the FCC, it is becoming clear that LightSquared is not ready to give up on its plans just yet.

For more
Light Reading Mobile has followed LightSquared's regulatory roller coaster through its many ups and downs:

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile


Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

Network Computing encourages readers to engage in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task. However, Network Computing moderates all comments posted to our site, and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory, offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM. Network Computing further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating in said activities.

 
Disqus Tips To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy.
 
Related Content
Most Popular
Read
White Papers SPONSORED CONTENT
Featured
Resource Library SPONSORED CONTENT
Trill
A Spanning Tree alternative in Ethernet networks