LightSquared Signs Deal With Soundtracker
LightSquared has signed yet another customer to its on-hold 4G wireless wholesale network.
Soundtracker, an Internet radio company, will bundle its music with mobile connectivity to its more than 11 million songs.
LightSquared's plans are on hold while the FCC tests the service for interference to GPS service that employs an adjacent band, but that has not kept the company from striking deals for the network.
The commission gave LightSquared a waiver to use its satellite spectrum allocation for a terrestrial mobile broadband network in an effort to promote price and service competition in that space, but GPS users including various government agencies have complained that the power levels necessary for the terrestrial service threatens navigation and weather prediction and much more.
LightSquared has taken steps to address those issues, but the waiver is conditioned on the FCC concluding it can proceed without interference, and is conducting further tests.
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Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.