Ligado has signed a deal with spectrum broker Select Spectrum to market its midband spectrum holdings to enterprise customers, particularly in the utility and critical infrastructure sectors.
Select will "identify opportunities for localized access to Ligado’s licensed spectrum in the 1.6 GHz band," including such uses as power grid upgrades and transportation.
Also: Ligado, Rakuten Sign MOU
There has been some speculation that Ligado might sell its spectrum to Verizon, but Ligado CEO Doug Smith told Light Reading last year: "We think, from an enterprise standpoint, there is a great need that we can fill. And that's everything from additional automation, machine-to-machine connectivity, or things like very low latency, high reliability and security that are so important to supporting critical infrastructure."
The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed in 2020, put guard rails around an FCC decision that allows Ligado to use satellite spectrum adjacent to GPS for terrestrial 5G, which came despite pushback from the Trump Administration, aviation groups, and some in Congress. ■
