LightSquared says it has struck a deal with BrightStar to be its "preferred" provider of end-to-end services for its wholesale 4G network customers.
LightSquared has the spectrum, has struck a deal with Sprint to build out the network, and now has teamed with Brightstar to provide a "customizable suite of mobile device-related products and services" to customers, many of which will likely be getting into the wireless business for the first time.
Among the services BrightStar provides are help with devices, pricing, distribution, and point of sale.
LightSquared has been striking deals for the service even as it awaits clearance from the FCC, which has put its conditional waiver on hold while it does more testing of potential interference to GPS receivers using an adjacent spectrum band. LightSquared says it has found a fix to that interference, including retrofitting GPS receivers to make them less sensitive to in-band interference and modifying its proposal to use spectrum further away from GPS, at least initially, and at lower power.
LightSquared execs say the issue is with the sensitivity of GPS receivers, an issue that industry did not raise until after LightSquared had invested billions based on the FCC conditional authorization. The GPS industry counters that the problem is that there would not have been a receiver problem had LightSquared not sought to use its satellite spectrum for a terrestrial-only service several billion times more powerful than the satellite signal.
Meanwhile, some legislators have been pressing the company, as well as the FCC and White House, on information related to the grant of the conditional waiver.
