LightSquared Files For Bankruptcy

fallen1 writes "Wireless broadband company LightSquared has filed for bankruptcy. In filings with U.S. Bankruptcy court, it was revealed that LightSquared had assets and debts of over $1 billion each. The decision followed a year-long fight between LightSqaured and GPS users — including some heavyweights like FedEx and UPS. Apparently Boeing and Alcatel-Lucent are heavily invested, but it would be interesting to see what the old Bell Labs could do with the technology."

It's a shame this couldn't be mutually resolved.

[BMOC]

Most people just see the GPS side of this fight, afraid of losing GPS in the continental U.S. In reality it would have mostly affected those who needed extreme precision, not the average users. That's not to say that losing the precision is good, no it's clearly bad for everyone. However, lightsquared wanted to give wireless internet to everyone in the continental U.S. It's just a shame there wasn't some technical way to resolve the issue before lawyers got involved.

Re:It's a shame this couldn't be mutually resolved

[busyqth]

If GPS is the key to driverless cars, then I can just imagine how much fun the future prankster can have by setting an appropriately-tuned radio transmitter next to the side of the road.

Let's hope there's more to driverless cars than that.

Re:It's a shame this couldn't be mutually resolved

[jeffmeden]

The spectrum they bought was probably dirt cheap. No way to make a profit with spectrum that is more in demand.

Dirt cheap because nobody else would touch it (for good reason).

Did you miss the part in TFA where it explained that "LightSquared invested $4 billion in airwaves"? 4 Billion is still a lot of money, at least where I come from. I suppose for a nationwide network it probably pales in comparison to what AT&T or Verizon hold, but it is still a substantial investment. I wonder if the FCC will give them a refund on all those unused EM rays?