LightSquared, a new company backed by Harbinger Capital Partners, has closed an additional $850 million in financing through a credit facility led by UBS AG. 
The syndicated loan has a term of four years. LightSquared plans to use the proceeds of the financing for general corporate purposes, including construction of its LTE-wholesale network. With this additional $850 million, LightSquared has obtained an aggregate of more than $2 billion in equity and debt proceeds and in commitments.
LightSquared also announced it has signed its first wholesale agreements and is in advanced negotiations with numerous potential customers.
In addition, LightSquared intends to accelerate the implementation of Phase 2 of the Inmarsat Cooperation Agreement to the fourth quarter of this year. By doing so, LightSquared will obtain increased access to spectrum controlled by Inmarsat.
Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared, stated: “We are extremely pleased that we have secured this significant amount of financing and believe it endorses our overall business model, while providing LightSquared with a solid step forward to execute our strategy and begin building out our 4G-LTE-wholesale network.”http://www.LightSquared.com
- In July, LightSquared unveiled its plans to launch a wholesale-only, 4G-LTE network across the U.S. complemented by satellite coverage. LightSquared will provide wholesale wireless broadband capacity to a diverse group of customers, including retailers; wireline and wireless communication service providers; cable operators; device manufacturers; web players; content providers; and many others. The LightSquared network will allow these partners to offer satellite-only, terrestrial-only, or integrated satellite-terrestrial services to their end users.
- Nokia Siemens Networks has signed an 8-year agreement valued at more than $7 billion over 8 years to provide network design, equipment manufacturing and installation, and network operations and maintenance. The nationwide LightSquared network, consisting of approximately 40,000 cellular base stations, will cover 92 percent of the U.S. population by 2015. The satellite portion of the LightSquared network will leverage the next generation hybrid Mobile Satellite System (MSS) with an Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) developed by SkyTerra.
