LightSquared to pay Inmarsat $56.3M, delays further payments until 2014

LightSquared will pay satellite operator Inmarsat $56.3 million it had been withholding since February, and under the terms of a revised deal between the two companies, LightSquared will not have to make any further payments to Inmarsat until April 2014. The agreement also allows LightSquared to retain access to some of Inmarsat's L-band satellite spectrum.

The agreement gives LightSquared both breathing room and extra money as it continues to fight to launch a wholesale LTE network.

The FCC in February revoked a conditional waiver for LightSquared to build a wholesale LTE network due to GPS interference concerns related to the 1.6 GHz L-band spectrum that LightSquared intended to employ. LightSquared has been battling to stay afloat ever since then. Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund is the majority investor in LightSquared, said earlier this month that he is "seriously considering" putting LightSquared into bankruptcy. LightSquared has also hinted it may sue the FCC.

Meanwhile, the FCC said it will turn over more documents related to the waiver it initially granted LightSquared. According to a Multichannel News report, which cited unnamed sources in Congress, the FCC will soon give more documents to the House Energy and Commerce Committee; more than 13,000 pages of FCC documents related LightSquared have already been released. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), has held up the nominations of two new FCC commissioners, Republican Ajit Pai and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, while he awaits more documents from the FCC on the matter. Grassley's office indicated the senator will not lift the hold just yet, according to the report.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article (sub. req.)
- see this Multichannel News article

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